After two scores and ten, <br />Often it occurs to a man- <br />Something stirs in back of mind, <br />When one stares years behind. <br /> <br />Ahead one sees a silhouette, <br />Which one had not thought to see <br />Until that time, in worlds different, <br />That were in joy or in pain spent. <br /> <br />Then, slow or fast the years pass, <br /> And the form grows & grows thus <br />Becoming more and more so clear, <br />Until it takes a shape familiar. <br /> <br />With it comes a sense of fear, <br />A melancholic despair- <br />An angst, a ‘nada’ unknown before, <br />Feeling of futility- a kind of bore. <br /> <br />As the years climb higher & higher <br />And the shape starts coming closer, <br />One may show one of two reactions- <br />Shrink back, or grow intentions: <br /> <br />To challenge that form or that shape <br />For a fight, and not escape- <br />In thought weak, meek, and defeated, <br />Alive yet but as good as dead. <br /> <br />I, a soldier, not learned to surrender, <br />Intend to fight and live as before- <br />Bravely staring it yet not giving up, <br />As long as body keeps soul in its cup. <br /> <br />Let none assume me a setting sun- <br />Pale-red and fading while getting down, <br />Life never meant much to me afore, <br />And the shape was many times so near. <br /> <br />That its appearance has been much known, <br />Accepted it have I as mocking clown. <br />“Dare me! ” say I, “if guts ye have”- <br />I won’t beg for mercy for outcomes grave. <br /> <br />‘I have lived my own way of life’ <br />Full of challenge and of strife. <br />What I achieved or didn’t is my own, <br />Bestowed upon me? I accept none. <br /> <br />So will I live, as one should live, <br />And accept ultimate- what I believe <br />As destiny not so bad or so good, <br />A game that loosing is not to brood.<br /><br />Neelam Kumar Sharma<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/come-what-may-13/
