Poetry 2019 Featured Poet, KV Raghupathi

If I am Dead

If I am dead

I know your tears flow like October streams

I may not see

Cry now until your eyes drain like summer plains.

If I am dead

I know you may plant hot kisses on my cold body like pigeon

I may not feel

Kiss me now profusely until your lips pale like shrunken lily.

If I am dead

I know you may heap praise after praise upon me like a drunken sycophant

I may not hear

Praise me therefore until the Spring comes.

If I am dead

I know you may abuse me for my faults like a disgruntled politician

I may not record

Abuse me therefore until your vocal cords stop vibrating.

If I am dead

I know your love overflows like boiling milk in a kettle

I may not sense

Love me therefore until the Blue Moon fades.

If I am dead

I know you may feed the poor to satisfy your ego

I may not witness

Feed the poor now dispassionately till your treasures drain.

Time is short, life is small.

Death is near, love is far

Nothing will give you fullness

except a sense of giving.

Everything goes without your doing anything.

Hence love me, kiss me

praise me, abuse me

and feed the destitute before I am dead.