Till The Last Minute Poem by Bashyam Narayanan

You deserve credits
For you have been connecting ages
I know things of the past,
Long long-ago events
Because of you
I also know that generations ahead
Will come to know about this present
Only with your help

How much I become dependent on you
For the simple reason
That you help me communicate
And make me understood by others
The way I want them to
Understand me

Though I used to feel
I am being understood by others
In the same way
I understand myself
Later, I realised, more often than not,
That they have not understood me,
But, in fact, misunderstood me,
Which I could make out
From the reactions in response
To my communications

I do not know,
Whether I too have been
Misunderstanding others
In the same way
They have been doing me

It is all because of the guises
You can take
You look blue to me
While others see you as red
You smell jasmine to me
While others feel it as
Some other fragrance
To me you look opaque
To them transparent
And so on..
Though shapeless
You can assume thousands of shapes

Oh, my dear mother tongue
When I am going to do away with you
So that I am understood right
And I understand better

I hear you telling something

'Yes, when you breathe your last'