Birthday No. 46

By Antonio Rodrigues

On my forty-sixth birthday

I stepped down from the train.

A morbid crowd had gathered

to watch with rabid curiosity.

We willed the train to move away

to expose the gruesome view to our sight.

He lay there on the tracks.

His head was a metre astray!

What were his last thoughts?

Did he dream of home and hearth?

Of warm welcomes, of tearful goodbyes,

Of insignificant battles won and enduring love lost!

On his wrist, Time carried on its restless march

Regardless of Life’s frightening farce.

His briefcase revealed the remains of his day

Now the debris of a life as on the ground he lay!

Lunch pail, calculator, notepad,

pens, pencils and eraser,

flat file restraining paper in the damp,

fetid air of unfinished business!

On the forty-sixth anniversary of my birth,

I encountered death!

By Antonio Rodrigues