Rhyme Time
Wise men

Once I went to a mental hospital

On seeing the people there, my mood went bitter

So pitiable was their condition,

To talk to each one of them became my mission.

And when I talked to them, they said

Nothing except ‘why’ and ‘when’.

To my utter-utter surprise

They all were very wise

Then how they reached there,

It was a mystery.

The reply was, they were doing

PhD in history

My feet are in the graveyard

But I still cannot resign

Can’t name, can’t define

Everybody has to cross this bridge

Everyone has to go this way

Where you’re tested the most

There has to be that one last day

Last for this world it would be

Where your soul shall leave this cloth of skin

And you won’t need those eyes to see

Two shores might never meet each other

But the same ocean they do touch

The first shore was where you were born

On the second, life might seemed to end

It’s not an end but a beginning

That begins with your last breath

You’ll get the wages of your sins

One by one, turn by turn

I hear all say and cry quite often

"Oh God! This life is full of strife"

But when you reach this juncture

You know what’s called the slice of life.

Sugandha Arora, XII,
Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School, Chandigarh

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