A Poem by Abhishek Rath

THE FLICKERING PENUMBRA

The flickering penumbra on the wall,
Was of a penurious old man,
Ambushed by the quisling amnesia,
Whose somnolent eyes were somber and dark.

The shadow rapidly fluttering,
By the deflating candle light,
Resembled the walk of a tippler,
While dawdling along the endless way.

The adamant night growing feral,
Catechized his thoughts like a mulish lawyer,
"What has made the debonair man,
Always reckon the day of his funeral."

Then he could hear a melliflusous voice,
Looming phlegmatically from the void,
"The culminating time has come, rest all is gone."
And after the voice ended, the silence was again regained.

The flickering penumbra kept on fluttering,
On the floor, the old man was resting still.
But after his eyelashes slumped fast,
And his vexed thoughts were buried in his heart,

"His sluggish eyes dreamt of the coffin on the catafalque" . . .


Abhishek Rath, age 21 years, a native of India has been published in 20 different national and international journals to date.  His poems have been published in journals like Wilderness House Literary Review, Aaduna, Ranfurly Journal.