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He used to arrive by the front door
Now he comes by the side entrance
Furtive, almost apologetic
The fear factor long gone.
The Grim Reaper’s visits are now irregular;
The reason has finally dawned.
The beautiful people are long gone.
The sages and the seers,
The poets, the philosophers and the academics,
The aesthetes, the cineastes and the connoisseurs,
Once gathered like gallant knights
Custodians of the sacred and the precious.
Now there is only emptiness,
Truth, nobility and grace are banished.
In thrall to the cheap, the crass,
To the vulgar and the bland
To his baser instincts,
The full arc of Man’s life span...
He has reached the Rubicon.
The Grim Reaper knows
He is surplus to requirements.
(In memory of my uncle Krishnanath)
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