Dear Poet Friends, this is an old poem of mine composed in the style of a dramatic monologue, being an admirer of Robert Browning myself. Hope you like it. Thanks, - Raj Nandy.
AT THE CEMETERY I came to offer my bouquet of flowers and pray for my father’s departed soul, Had he lived on this day, he would have been a hundred years’ old! But I have watched you all this while my friend, sitting still, all lost in thought; Facing that marble grave strewn with flowers, which your grieving heart had brought. Fate and destiny we cannot fight, the old must leave with time you know; Like the Autumn leaves which gently fall, in the Winter’s breeze both soft and slow. Such going and coming is a part of life, do cheer up my friend and take heart; Think of your family and life ahead, these passing sorrows do not last. You have a wife at home and perhaps children too, who will keep you happy to forget this loss; But my consoling words failed to stop his tears, which kept flowing without a pause! Who is it you so grieve for my friend, let’s arise and carry on with life; But the stranger continued kneeling and softly said, - ‘Sir, it is my newly wedded wife’! -Raj Nandy, New Delhi.