A thought on Father’s Day

 

P. K. Joy

 

I am writing this from heaven

To you my beloved children

On this World Father’s Day

The things I long wished to say.

 

I don’t write to give you pain

But wisdom I wish you to gain

From the way I lived my life

For you, hiding all my grief.

 

I stood like a banyan tree

Under me you lived carefree

While my trunk was rotting in the core

With the strains of the burdens I bore

With a very large family to feed

And many a financial need,

And with the rest and nourishment I lacked

For I starved much, behind your back

 

I fed you and dressed you well

Sent you to decent school

Raised you stretching my reach

So much that it appeared I was rich.

 

To earn more to meet obligations

To god I made supplications.

He showed ways of extra earning.

They kept the candle’s both ends burning.

 

My famished body I veiled in darned dress.

Anguished mind laden with the stress

And strains of struggles to cope with demands

In feigned joy I concealed. You didn’t understand.

 

My body thinned and failed.

Unwillingly, untimely I died.

But soon you honoured me indeed

By the positions you strugglingly reached.

 

For my sacrifices I’m not at all sad

Children! a father is next only to god.

                                    *

 

 

‘Nothing is more destructive of the respect for government and law of the land than passing laws which are not enforced.’

-Einstein.

 

Back