The 55th death.

[Text by Binodan Kumar Dev Sarma; photo by a “Dear Friend”]

Iambic

On a winter morning
they discovered him still,
fist open, legs apart, loins wet,

a book of poetry lay open
over his stiller chest,
page 37, a poem by some Kolatkar

earmarked with notes
not his handwriting, he wrote
with a pencil, this was with a pen

blue ink, he preferred black.
His pen, a roller, 0.7mm tip
lay next to him. It would be carried

with him to the pyre. His wife stacked
the moleskeins beside the body,
21, each filled to last page

except one. The first page of it
the top right corner bore an ellipsis,
the second only a prologue:

16 poems of dusk and dawn
his story – dusk, hers – dawn
his – an octet, hers – a sestet.

The doctor did an autopsy,
wrote a comment – “Binodan Kumar Dev Sarma, 72, male
Cardiac arrest around early dawn”

Our Self-Written Obituaries invites people to write their obituary in 200 words. The idea is to share with the world how you will like to be remembered after you are gone. (May you live a long life, of course!) Please mail me your self-obit at mayankaustensoofi@gmail.com.