IMMORTALITY

by Shikhandin


Immortality is a figment
not of imagination, but of desire.
A very human weakness.
It is alright to seek immortality.
Who will mourn you
when you have turned to earth
depends
upon the dreams you left behind.
Desire
feeds on dreams.
Human will, builds
itself on the bones of human deeds,
however small.

                                            What stories

can the words of your everyday life foretell?
Who can say where immortality lies
in wait and for whom?

The answers are embedded in the smallest of things.
Go there
simply because it is there.
And, take your heart with you,
for that is the only part
of you that will become the clay
from which your children and theirs
after them or your friends and neighbours and
their children after them,
will fashion an immortal likeness of you.

                                The blood moon
we watched together
from different parts of this earth
stilled time and condensed space.
Some gifts blossom in their own time.
They cannot be unwrapped at will.

Riptides have expiry dates.
Earthquakes finally subside.
Abysses close. Mountains erode.
What remains eternal
lies in the final settlement. And that rests
in your own fragile hands.
Don’t drop them.

***

From Shikhandin’s poetry collection After Grief published by Red River, India, August 2021. “Immortality” was first published in The Linnet’s Wings (UK).

Shikhandin is the pen name of an Indian writer who writes for adults and children. Her published books include After Grief – Poems (Red River India), Impetuous Women (Penguin-Random House India), Immoderate Men (Speaking Tiger), and Vibhuti Cat (Duckbill-Penguin-Random House India). She has won various awards and honours, and her prose and poetry have been published worldwide. 
Amazon Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/shikhandin 
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