To Death

I lay unconscious For a fortnight Throwing my entrails out On a forlorn hospital bed Down with enteric fever All that I remember hearing then Through slits Of my sinking awareness Were the North East January winds Violently rustling the banyan trees I never feared you then You didn't matter to me For I was primitive In my still nascent innocence I survived and grew up Later to be poetic I was worried I would lose the beauty Of the east winds And the Monsoon rains If you pounced on me unwawares I spent sleepless nights Rolled on my bed Feared you were there In the dark Outside my hut With a noose To squeeze my fragile neck Idiot I was Till I knew That I knew you That you were always with me Nibbling at my corpus That isn't really me Like a rat Inching towards its last savored gulp What does it matter rat You have always been there To feast on what I mistook I was? You always needed me To acknowledge and validate Your own flimsy existence A silly mongrel you are Tamed to the very hilt The next time your food is ready I will call you, till then wait My backyard is your home As it is For the mango tree Mewing cat, the evening sky I will ever remain Lighting your eccentricities And absurdities To the ignorant world around me Wait and pant That is all What you are supposed to do Till I have another errand for you