The passing

A poem about old age

By Shevlin Sebastian

One by one,

People of my dad’s generation

Are passing away.

A call came

At 9 a.m. on a Sunday

An old family friend,

Died, in his nineties.

Cause of death: old age

He was a morally upright,

decent and humble person

Soon, a photo of the deceased,

Arrives on WhatsApp

Lying still on a hospital bed.

The wife stands nearby

Gazing at the husband.

Fingers pressed against

Her cheeks.

She is mourning two deaths

The physical death of her husband

And the death of a marriage of several decades.

What now?

There will be no one to share the days and nights.

The children are scattered all over the world.

The life alone,

Is terrifying at the best of times.

More so, during the end stages of life.

The husband had the company of the wife

When he passed away

But what about the wife?

Who will give her companionship now?

Her children, perhaps.

The cycle of life

Spring, summer, autumn and winter.

No matter how powerful you are.

Or how rich.

Or how charismatic

The ascent is always followed by a descent

To the graveyard

Or the crematorium.

Depending on your religion.

You have to say goodbye one day.

But it’s not easy… this last lap

To extinction.

Many suffer prolonged agony.

Some lose their minds

To dementia and Alzheimer's.

A few have their bodies ravaged

By cancer.

Many have regrets

About the actions they took

But it’s too late.

An act can never be undone.

It’s like a word which comes out of the mouth.

You cannot pull it back.

So, forgive yourself

And forget about it.

It’s also frightening to behold

That one day, we too

Will have to go through the same process.

A friend said, “Let’s live,

As if each day is going to be our last.

And cherish it to the fullest.”

Easily said,

But so difficult to implement.

The human mind

Slides into negativity so easily.

And so persistently.

The fight between light and darkness

Occurs at every moment.

This battle will go on.

Till the exhausted heart gives up

And stops beating…

(Published in Poetry Soup.com)