One By One Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

First death I remember was Joseph thatha’s
In his house on his cot, already dead
In Palayamkottai: we went from Srivilliputtur.

I ve heard a lot, but seen him only once before,
During one Easter, on evening dining table,
With a plate of food in front with hole for salt!

A year later, in Nehru School, Papa came
Sought permission from Saro Teacher,2nd class,
To take me to same town to see his mother, dying.

We went in, cot the same, but it was Paatimma
Dan Uncle her eldest son weeping uncontrollable,
With a spoon of milk; reversing, son to mother.

Once she opened her eyes, but didn’t take milk,
She died, the one who spent a few days with us
In Jamburopuram and got me sticky sweet to eat.

Later a student Surendresan died suddenly,
When I was teaching in Nagamalai-Pudukottia:
I went to his house, stood silently, seeing his body.

I got into IAS, married, was in Gadhinglaj, Kolhapur
During lunch one day hesitantly my wife Tilaka
Revealed Rajan my friend, the only one, had died.

She, the bride that she was, expected me to be
Shattered, cry or weep and be upset; instead,
She saw me complete my lunch in full, clean.

Later by 1981, Mom had suffered lymphoma
From 1975, and after radiotherapy and chemo,
In Chennai and Miraj and Tata, she died in my house.

In 1984, along with Prime Ministry Indira Gandhi
Dan Uncle died when I was in Manchester,
Under Colombo Plan, doing my second MA.

Dad was sinking at 79, had Parkinson’s for ten years,
I brought him to Mumbai had him at home and St Georges,
I saw him, helpless, for six months, and he died.

I have seen my wife’s parents, become old, suffer
Get tossed from here to there, tended by daughters,
And die within a short time of each other.

Dad had died in 1995: fifteen years have passed:
I have finished my career and superannuated
From Government, and entered my sixty-fifth year.

I used to count full moons to my retirement,
And now I count them to my death,
Almost all, familiar faces gone, one by one.

Persons close to me speculate but inwardly
Who would be next? After all, I am eldest,
Not just the law of primogeniture, but I know.