COLOSSAL PRIDE

Head held high and looking down upon the world!

Oh proud friend! Looking down on the rest!

What is it, that gives your colossal Pride?

In this ever-changing world of flux and entropy

How long can you hide in comfort?  

Today!  The freshness of your beauty may charm many an eye

And prettiness and beauty may churn your pride

But in time when wrinkles wring your face

And no pretty veil can hide your forsaken fate

Will your pride be more than skin deep ?

Today you are young and healthy

Surrounded by friends and family

Respected by the  respectable

In you, happiness and completeness transiently reside !

But beware friend! You are not their permanent abode!  

When the arrow of disease strikes you

And the scorching old age, shrivels you up

When you are left helpless by the road;and all family has left you

No more possessions left with you , to be respected

What else will you be proud about?

Knowledge and experience!

And if luck serves you, even wisdom!

All of these seem to adorn you today!

But when the brain erodes with time, and the mind fades away

As you lie lonely and a forgotten, in a  bed of an uncanny institution

Will you be able to walk unassisted?

Unable to remember your very own name

Unable to say night from day

Unaware of your own soiling

Lying at the mercy of someone to clean you ! 

Will you still remember your wiser days with pride?  

Oh proud friend! In this ever-changing world of flux and entropy

What you have today; will vanish tomorrow!

Pride of possession and position ;  knowledge and beauty

Will they sustain you when are left dying!

Tell me dear friend!

Will they preserve your rotting flesh !