Dilip Chitre's Father Returning Home Poem by Bijay Kant Dubey

Dilip Chitre's father returning home
As a daily passenger,
A commuter
Departing for in the morning
And returning by ate evening,
The same train,
The same man
And the same time-table.

Only times have, but they have not,
Life has, but they have not
Hanging onto,
Dropping down
One by one,
The daily commuters,
Office-goers
And comers coming and going.

A press man he, an editor he
Coming and going often
With the bag full of books
He journeying throughout the year
Coming and returning to
in the same train
With the yellow light
But the seats different perhaps.

Even during the humid monsoon days
His shirt and pants
Can be seen wet,
Soaked in and drenched
And the chappals sticky
And mud-stained,
But still he returning
Plodding the homeward journey.

Catching the train in the evening,
Seeing it glide through the halts and stations,
Unawares
Of the suburbs in a vortex,
He dropping down at the exact station,
The platform on
And hurrying towards homeward
Crossing over the tracks and lines to be into the lanes to.

Reaching home, refreshing himself
He retiring to his room
And space
With none to be by his side
To share his jokes and cares
In the family big
Full of so many members,
The missing man perhaps.

The old man's loneliness,
Alienation
In this modern age and times,
How to feel it,
Depict it,
The angst and bewilderment,
Ego and hypocrisy,
Which is whose?

The age gap, the mentality gap,
Behavioural, familial,
The generation gap
In terms of the old man and the young man,
How to feel it,
Describe it,
Sociological and psychological
And mental?