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His mother died last night.
He’ll burn her and grow older.
He was a young man last year
when his father died
and even after he lit the pyre.

But, now he’s old
He couldn’t leave home like
Siddhartha
or become Budhha

She left before he could renounce
the world

He cannot leave home.

Men, whose mothers are
dead,
don’t make heroes.

They only grow old
and carry their homes
along.

© Jatin Gandhi, November 2, 1999.