Compassion Poem by DEEPAK KUMAR PATTANAYAK

Compassion
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Pensive and doleful
He was sitting beside a stranger
In a bus coming from Kochi to Trichur
What's wrong with you my friend?
Asked the stranger looking like a Church Father

You are young and budding
Yet something is preying on your mind
He looked at Father with blank eyes
As if the light of his soul has fled
And the pilgrimage
Of his life is coming to an end
And his thoughts were slow and brown
Mattered little if someone him talked
He looked lost in his own heaven

Father was a man of compassion
He tried again to elicit a response
Take me as your friend and pour down
Your emotions where
I can feel my sorrow's share
As if knocked down
Finally ice started melting down
Springing forth tears on his eyes
While recounting
Happenings leading to his woes

See I am a dead man living
Having lost both my kidneys
I have been looking for a donor
None willing to spare even one
And in the process of acquiring one
I lost my life's savings to a swindler
Now can you expect me to talk with a smile?
When I am left with life of no zeal
Now I am a weary pilgrim
Willing to join forefather's den

Father was listening to him calmly
Then came his reply solemnly
That I have been looking for you all my life
And how strange you are sitting beside me with grief
And if I can't provide you with relief
My life would be futile and filled with mischief
See I am blessed with two
And you have none
I have heard, one can lead normal life with one
And I am willing to spare for you one

Now give me your sweet smile
So that I can say to God life is not futile
Dumbfounded he looked at Father
With tears rolling down his cheek ceaselessly
A flower on the verge of being culled so early
Was put aside with transplantation being made successful
Now they are no more strangers
Loving each other
Wishing each other long life
Father George and victim Asif
Oh! life sometimes can be miracle
And God is so merciful