He recalled countless times their last conversation,
About locking kitchen window where cats sneaked,
For many years, his routine words for sound sleep,
She greeted with a sigh, a heave, turning on sides,
Leaving him groping in dark, feeling wall for switch,
Reminding along his way her insulin, test calendar,
First daughter’s missing gold, second’s long silence,
Third’s sister in law’s divorce, last’s uterine fibrosis,
In that still moonless night, his mind went on hunt,
Striking at fleeting thoughts seeking refuge in sleep.
Thrice lucky, widowed sisters said holding his hands,
Dying before you, in sleep, when Sun moves North,
She had prayed long for this day, he said to himself,
Selfish woman letting her burden drop hard on him,
He gently steered noiseless grand children forward,
As daughters convulsed together, alone and in two,
A sniffle there, a moan here, puncturing the silence,
As heat of day withered many tongues and flowers,
Rising for customary rites of priests to god of death,
Had to work now for her salvation, and his own too.
They swept floors, washed and lighted a clay lamp,
Took out unwashed vessels that brimmed the sink,
He found all slots of pill box filled neat for months,
Coffee powder ground fresh for the year and next,
Insurance dues all settled, fixed deposits renewed,
Her even numbered saris of same make piled high,
Had crushed all her silver for four golden necklace,
Seeing mattress still wrinkled from her final sleep,
Moved pillows to discover his forgotten horoscope,
She had kept all along, with a tattered prayer book.
(2012)