Stranger in a Mirror

by Bharat B. Trivedi

I stare myself
in the cracked mirror -

and find a grey-haired, bespectacled stranger

grinning at me with a toothless, dentured-smile!

His withered familiar face reflects

the watermarks of weather-beaten wrinkles.

Journeys of over-ripen years have mapped his fatigued features

Webs of crow-feet crawl near his watery cataract eyes, and

layers of antiquity cover him with onion-like rumpled skin,

As his aged brittle bones ache with the passage of time,

memories of days bygone, limp with his walking-stick

to the final voyage of eternity…

How quickly time flew,

and subtly stole the youthful years of my lively life

to cage me in this pathetic prison of old age…

I now longingly wait for my darling death

to welcome me in her anxious arms

and transcend me to unseen heavens

or re-cremate me once again

in the flaming fires of hell,

or let me drown in my very own

senile tears of fear…

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