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Dying Wish: A Poem by Dr. Mallika Tripathi

When tomorrow dawns in the absence of my breath,
I shall lament the sight of my father,
Whose world will fracture, collapsing under the weight of solitude.
And I shall ache, a phantom in the wind,
Yearning to return to the warmth of my love, whose existence will unravel,
A thread without its weave, incomplete, lost in the labyrinth of grief.

I will cry for the tender dawn,
When my son stirs from slumber, his small hands reaching,
Yet finding only the void where I once was.
In the shadow of my departure they will grapple,
Like blind men searching for the sun,
Their lives enshrouded in a darkness, no light can pierce.

Hope, that fickle thing will flutter away on broken wings,
And the laughter I once brought will echo hollowly in the caverns of their hearts.
Tomorrow without me will be a curse,
A cruel sentence for those bound to me by threads of love, of trust, of fragile intimacy.

Oh God, grant me this one last day that I may tie the loose ends,
Kiss each forehead, whisper the words left unsaid,
Before I surrender to the eternal night.