The crux

Would I have ever known the poet in me,

had my father lived!

Could I have ever introduced myself to my pen,

if my father had never been attacked

by an autoimmune disorder!

2015 to 2016; that one year

marked the starting point of his journey to death,

while it marked the birth of poetry in me;

the beginning of another new journey of my life.

Little did we know,

destiny had so much in store for both of us!

Could you have ever imagined

a 68 year old vigorously robust man turn into

a frame of just skin and bones,

in a matter of twelve months?

What would have hurt you the most, then -

being a witness to this reality of his sufferring

or being a witness to his deteriorating condition?

He has never surrendered himself to his disease

nor did he ever give up on himself.

Perhaps that is the only reason, the only cause

my pen bleeds for him, even after 7 years of his passing.

How do I visualise and perceive this junction as -

is my father's disease, God's way

of reminding him that it is time for him

to leave this world and return to dust,

or did God cause him the disease because

the universe had to sow

the seed of poetry within me...?

Copyright Shaheen Akhtar.