Gaunt Limbs

This poem is dedicated to my dear English teacher who suffered and died from liver cancer a year ago. May his soul rest in peace.

Blood trickles down in every vein
As if some rivulets, they stream in rain.
I have swallowed too many deaths,
I have held hands of those,
Who breathed their last breaths...
Some dreams like kaleidoscope
Their lives have been
But then again they've fluttered and scurried
Timid with fear of the cold hands
Until they reach their edge, precipice, and fall
Yet their eyes sparkle with dreams;
Dreams of life, dreams that ebb away along with their lives
But I feed them with mine,
Here,
Of miracles, of sheer make-believe...


Gaunt limbs, fleshless and hollow,
I wait till opens the attic window,
Wait till the cold hand grasps me tight.
Shimmering veil beyond death and life
Just this journey of throes
And then,

Friends will shed tears on my hair, on my face
Upon where I leave no pain's trace.
While I slumber deep and benign
I'll be sitting by myself then in someone else's life
Weeping and dreaming of miracles: “Had life not ended...
Had I lived more
More than I did,” ah, what a miracle it would have been...

Author's Note

I have seen my teacher slowly dying from cancer. I couldn't do anything. I know how much pain a death can cause and how hideously cancer sucks out the life from a body. I can never repay him I reckon. Without his tender guidance I would never have been what I am now...

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A very sad poem. Cancer is a cold and heartless sickness. I'm sorry for your teacher's bad death. Life is fragile and we need to be thankful for the people who gave their time to us. Need to remember them like you did in words and thoughts. A very good poem. Thank you.
Coyote

[Vaidehi]

Really sad, a befitting tribute to a great teacher. Really sweet of you to write this poem to remember him.

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

I find it reclusive to the point of being numb. emotion sprawls from every angle, well done a structured well written piece.

[Brooke Nicole Plummer]

touching.