The Journey’s End

I watched

the evening Sun slowly moving Westward

mellowed, leaving behind

its candescent glory

in the bleeding heart of the Elysium

soon to be enveloped in the bosom of the earth.

It was the day’s end!

I reflected

sitting on my balcony alone --

how many such days’ end I have witnessed

in the span of my life

as it gradually transits

towards a journey unknown.

I wondered

where did my childhood go?

My parents, friends, loved ones,

my youth, college days,

first meeting with the man I was going to spend my life,

moving to a different country, my job,

joys of being a new mother,

roaming the world with my husband,

trips to India to meet my parents –

all flickered in a blink of an eye.

I contemplated

what the reality of life is,

Are we just shadows – unreal like a dream,

soon to be vaporized into nothingness?

Or are we like the Sun travelling to the world beyond

to another zone beyond our sight,

perhaps to be born again

somewhere, unknown?

Is this the journey’s end

or the beginning of another life?

Meenakshi Mohan, Ed.D., is a scholar, art critic, children’s writer, painter, and poet. She has taught at universities in Chicago, Boston, and, more recently, for Towson University in Maryland. She has published worldwide both in the academic and creative areas. She has been listed twice in the Who is Who Among American Teachers. She is on the Editorial Team for Inquiry in Education, a peer-reviewed journal published by National Louis University, Chicago, Illinois.