Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Bequest

On the pages were listed
A small house in the country,
A trusty piano,
His collection of Mozart records,
A small Picasso he had splurged on,
A twenty year old car

The sons bore grave smiles
And paced nervously behind him
And wondered,
Is a father every really fair?

The lawyer put on his glasses
And laid the document in front of him,
With contained impatience.
A lunch with his estranged daughter awaited him

The signee cautiously flipped through the pages
Careful not to leave any crosses unsigned
An old habit.
The things you can’t bequeath, he pondered

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant!

shreya said...

"contained impatience"

lovely!

finally, a poem!

Pallavi said...

the things you can't bequeath..so true.

Persona non gratis said...

I wonder how you picked the subject of the poem. It would have never struck me to write one about a will.

Parth said...

@Pilgrim, Shreya: Thanks

@Shreemoyee: I honestly don't know. The closest I can think of is that I watched '36 Chowringee Lane' a couple of days back, and the theme of that movie was with old age and loneliness.

Persona non gratis said...

I re watched it over the week end on youtube!! Did you too?

Parth said...

Yup :-)

Persona non gratis said...

Goodness. Thats quite amazing. I also saw parzania here http://www.dailymotion.com/us

frissko said...

the choice of the subject had got me wondering as well...liked it all the same...
if i have wealth..and kids..i'd like to put my wealth in a bag and take it to my afterlife..and ask my kids to make their wealth..

sd said...

I thought I commented earlier in the day ... its missing now:-)

Loved the way you ended the poem..."the things you can't bequeath"

Parth said...

@Frissko: Interesting thought :-) Perhaps you could give it out like Bill Gates is doing. Basically, khaali haath aaye the, khaali haath jaana hai

@SD: Glad you liked it.

RTD2 said...

Funny - I've been in a morbid mood last couple of days, thanks to arbit watching of Six Feet Under (the show is about a family that runs a funeral home, see what I mean?) And then this post...
It's amazing how material wealth can remove (or enhance!) all dignity of the immaterial wealth one can leave behind. My children will get nothing but my infinite wisdom :)

Anonymous said...

Sad that one cannot find release from materialism even in death.

Parth said...

@RTD2: Your "Infinite" wisdom? :-)

@Vi: Aren't we then releasing ourselves of all materialism before we die? I see it in that vein.