TURNING FORTY OR EIGHTY: a sonnet

TURNING FORTY OR EIGHTY: a sonnet


There was a time when I did turn forty
And deemed it as quite a momentous day.
On that day healthily and happily,
To live as many more years did I pray.

That day is now past twenty seven years
And I have been quite happy with my life,
But yet I have a void and many fears,
Since meanwhile I have lost my lovely wife.

At eighty years with shaking voice and hands,
Without the life partner to talk and smile,
It would be difficult to walk time’s sands
Till when I reach life-road’s eightieth mile.

Forty, sixty or eighty don’t matter
What matters is the spirit, not letter.


M C Gupta
20 July 2008