Will anyone look for that One Alone? When this book on loan has been returned to the Library of Lamps as all its oil is burned? When the waves retreating have finished erasing the messages I whispered those etched with sobs unhindered on the sands seemingly numbed on the seashore of your heart succumbed?
Will anybody wonder what’s going on? The nameplate’s gone on the face of the closed door of that room on the upper floor that a while ago was Altar of Magnum Opus of the tiring writer’s stylus and Tabernacle of a cramped leg muscle of that voice that preached Darwin’s epistle.
The gong’s now muted Just yesterday it was calling unrelented upon fellow believers demented
The sun now starts to peep As stars bid goodnight to sleep
The frail shadow shall lay down, no scent of frankincense in the tomb of forgotten replies, with reminiscence - of a hundred “wait till tomorrow” in any sense, a thousand “just a minute” in any tense “see yah later”, for a thousand “Whens?” “soon . . .”, and now just silence . . .
Life leaves a million lessons. and yes, I, we, will always remember . . .
Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Victor P. Gapud (18 October 1943 - 29 December 2017), an esteemed mentor, colleague, entomologist, taxonomist/systematist, nationalist, teacher, scientist