Wednesday, January 07, 2015

The Calm after the Storm

The sky was overcast
Grey clouds blocked all the light
It took not half a second
 
To turn day into night 
The rain lashed down in torrents
The tide began to rise
A sole head bobbed in water
No one could hear his cries 

The calm of seas was ruffled
The wrath of skies incurred
The head amid the sea-waves
Now only weakly stirred 

His boat was so completely wrecked
He clutched a wooden plank
As the gale blew harder
The fisherman’s spirits sank 

He gulped and gasped for lack of breath
By cold air his eyes were stung
He weakly moaned in silent pain
As sea filled up his lung 

The fisherman was losing hope
His heart was gripped with fear
He lost the will to cling to life
He thought his end was near 

But just as he was letting go
A thought flashed through his head
How would his wife and child survive,
When they found he was dead?  

He could not let them bear such grief
He had to reach the shore
He had to fight the jeering waves
He had to live some more 

He gathered up his body’s strength
His will was hard as stone

Though not a soul could help him out
He’d reach the shore alone   

He thrashed his legs and flailed his arms
He swam through foaming froth
But the raging storm grew stronger still
The water stewed like broth 

His blood was ice in water cold
His very bones went numb
But he willed to reach the shore
He would not succumb 

His faculties were leaving him
Just then he glimpsed some sand…
All his strength had drained away
Just as he hit the land. 

Astonished that the man had lived
His friends took him in care
This was a newfound ray of joy
In the time of their despair 

It seemed as though all time stood still
They stood with baited breath
They nursed and fed the healing man
Till he returned from death 

Then the cherished moment came
When he took on new life
As he blinked he hoped to see
His dearest child and wife 

But alas – when he looked up
Neither one was there
Although his eyes were question marks
To hear truth, he did not dare 

He stood up straight with trembling feet
He stepped out in the sun
He looked for the hut and shed he’d built
He saw that there was none 

The cruel storm had wrecked his home
‘twas a heart rending sight
Although he had conquered his fate
He could not escape his plight 

His feet were lead, he could not move
As grief gripped all his form
His mind was blank, unfeeling, cold
Like the calm after the storm.  

~Vishakha Vartak, PGDM 2014-16 Marketing

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