A man gaurding dead...

An english version of my previous post "Main shamshaan ghaat ka marghat"....



I am the man between the bodies,
Dead bodies I mean.

Graveyard,
I am not buried inside;
It is my place where I live in.

Everyday lots of people,
Come to my place.
But not to meet me,
Not to see me.
They just come to leave one there,
One, who is dead.

They all know me,
Not by face,
Not by name.
But yes, they all know me.
Neither, one asked my name.
Never, am I.

They don’t ask me ‘how I am?’
And I can’t ask them ‘how they are?’

People say that, “death is unheard and unseen.”
May be they cannot.
But I see death everyday.
Not the one, who is in deep sleep.
But the one who can’t even close his eyes.
Dying every second, every moment.
He doesn’t close his eyes,
Because he wants to see his son’s face till sets fire on his son’s pyre.

When son sets fire on father’s pyre,
It burns in a while.
But when father sets fire on son’s pyre,
It burns and burns.
It takes time to burn,
All his hope,
All his dreams,
All the happiness and that is for forever.

Death is unheard and unseen.
But aftermath of that death,
One cannot leave that unheard,
And one cannot leave that unseen.

Before I get into sleep,
I see people screaming.
And when I open my eyes,
I see tears in eyes,
A kid crying for his mom,
Crying for his dad.
And he himself set them in fire.
Asking everyone to bring his mom back.
Asking everyone to bring his dad back.
Nothing leaves behind,
Except the ashes,
Which tells the story, what all have been burned.
How many became dead with him or her.
They couldn’t get burned,
But they were burned before they burned him dead.

I participate in everyone’s cremation,
Knowingly or unknowingly.
Heart-full or heart-less,
But I participate in everyone’s cremation.

They all come and leave my place.
They live this bitter truth, may be for while.
But I live this truth everyday.
They all count 'who is dead',
But I count 'who is alive',
Because I know, they will come again, may be last time,
But everyday my count gets off by one,
I forget to count myself.
Everyday, I count myself in dead .
Don’t know,
If I am really dead.
They all are alive because they are not dead.
But I am not dead because I am alive.



-Copyright © Vishal Singh