Relish

Subhransu Maitra

Certainly the saints are right
that Grace comes unsought
without a cause.
Certainly the seers are right
that Karuna arrives down pathless ways
to touch you.
But the radiance returning
to a scorched shrivelled face now come alive
as the patient living on borrowed time,
enjoying only a brief reprieve—perhaps her last,
is taken in a wheelchair to a taxi
waiting outside the nursing home
where she’ll return to die sooner than later….

** ** **
The returning radiance makes him,
who is fond of contemplating redemption
through Karuna or Grace and freedom from
all fatuous attributes, fatally recover the fatal
relish in his existence
and excrete again foul affection
for the beguiling loathsome attributes–
the rapture of sunlight gilding dust-filmed leaves,
noise of chirping birds at sunrise sunset,
sprigs leaves buds flowers,
the smell of coffee
and the acrid odour of burnt gasoline
hanging in the air in the artifice-like
narrow dingy noisy history-shaping city streets.

(Feb-April,’24)