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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