“I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye.” - Pi, Life of Pi
Last Hug
They say that in your last moments, your entire life flashes in front of your eyes
I believe that relationships might have a
similar predicament
After all, a relationship has a life of its
own
And like a human life, it is conceived,
takes birth, and dies out with time
Relationships take time and care in
infancy,
and cared for well enough, grow up strong
with legs of their own
They support others finding their way, and
evolve everyone around them
they also die from age, sickness,
loneliness, and ideas spreading like the plague
And that’s what happened that fateful
afternoon
when I knew it would be the last time we
were seeing one another
Well, “last” isn’t really the correct term,
as who knows what life might bring
But the next time, we would merely glance,
nod, and move forward
We wouldn’t sit together and share thoughts
both dull and deep
We wouldn’t hold hands and know the world
would find its peace
We wouldn’t find solace in the embrace of a
lover
We wouldn’t be honest as we once were to
each other
So I looked upon her, as we stood there,
not knowing if it was okay to walk away
but both knowing that it was the eventual
fate of that day
Both not knowing how long it the inevitable
would take
both fearing if we could somehow rectify
this mistake
Sitting there looking at her remembering,
how time had revealed each to the other
Like an onion, sometimes it stunk and
sometimes it make them cry
But as we discovered more off each other,
we discovered unfound layers beneath layers
And soon life would never be the same
without my smelly stinky onion ever again
As she turned to walk away, I for once let
go of inhibition
and charged towards her with the madness
only loss knows of
I draped her in what I would remember for
years later as the final embrace
Surprising her and captivating her at the
same time, behind her hands holding me as well
It reminded of the first time I remembered
her calling out my name
And the first time I held her hand
T’was the same night of the first kiss
And a memory of so many firsts, all rushing
at once
Surprised was she at the charge and hug
for him keepings emotions numb was why she
had to walk away in the first place
If only he would have done this before, so
many times before
But both knew he couldn’t, he wouldn’t,
that’s just not who he was
She remembered the times when she was in
need of kind words
and his brought wisdom but no relief
And when times were tough and she needed a
hand on her back
his would only stand beside her, in
thwarting all attacks
Life would be long, and they would move on,
and the last hug would stay with him
Comforting him in times of peril, torturing
him on cold lonely nights
And time and again life would make him
question, was it truly the last
Till time would eventually painfully give the
answer, yes it was.
Vishal
Gupta
20th
March, 2022
