My Father-2

My Father-2

“He has changed so much,

You can scarcely recognize him”,

Said my mother, of my father,

In one of my usual dreams.

I was greatly pained,

Wondered, if I had not done

The right thing by him-

In his old age.

After all, I had not seen him for five years

-since his death.

I went looking for him

And found him-

Clad in his home dhoti

And light blue shirt,

His hair disheveled in the usual way,

As it always did-

After his bath and before he had combed it-

With his stainless steel comb,

Made in America, with

A life time guarantee.

(It is now safely pouched in my travel bag.)

He did not look bad at all-

Spoke his usual jokes and

It was then that I noticed the change

-he laughed with remarkable ease

And did not wheeze,

Breathlessly, as he had always done.

I woke with relief to realize,

That there is no asthma in after-life.