Today’s prompt is – “In the world of well-known poems, maybe there’s no gem quite so hoary as Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about your own road not taken – about a choice of yours that has “made all the difference,” and what might have happened had you made a different choice.”
This poem is a tribute to my father who I lost on 26/11/2020.
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Standing at the water’s edge
I bore no malice or grudge
Holding the banana leaf over my head
I stepped into the river bed
“Dip,” he said, the man in the orange robe
with eyes that reflected the wisdom of the globe
I did what I was told, one hand holding the leaf over my head
the other my nose and I let my grief flow into the river bed
The waters washed over me
and before my eyes I saw the journey-
The choices I made
The dreams to rest I laid
Some taken by him, who loved
me. Some for him I had shoved
“Dip” he said again
Tapping the stone steps with his wooden cane
The paths taken
the roads forsaken
I lifted my head out of breath
Aware that a breath away was death.
“Dip,” he said. “Your body whole,
“and pray for the departed soul”
I dipped once more, my eyes shut close
Was moments before I rose
Every step that led me to him here
and allowed me to be near
“Now look towards the lingam* and pray” the sadhu** said
“for the dead.”
I joined my hands and prayed
For forgiveness- for every mistake he thought he made
Gratitude for those journeys we took
And I thought, ‘ If again it be, the slightest diversion I wouldn‘t brook.’
lingam* – the idol of Lord Shiva
sadhu**- Hindu priest

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