WHY GODOT DIDNT COME

 

Prof. P. P. SHARMA

 

They waited for him long

they called Godot

filling the interval

with a lot of small talk

their minds every now and then

returning to the expected visitor.

They did what you would guess

two tramps to do when thrown in on themselves,

a dreary landscape and a leafless skeleton-like tree

to share in between.

 

Did they really care enough

for him they apparently waited for?

Were they not all the time busy

with one thing or the other

quarrelling, then making up,

contemplating suicide

watching the drama of the other two

who happened to pass that way?

What vigil did they keep

to listen for the faintest footfall

of Godot who they said

they were waiting for?

 

The messenger finally arrived

to inform them: “He will not come.”

What heart-break do they suffer?

If the waiting had been serious

the non-arrival would have called forth

a sob, a shriek, an intenser response.

Or, mare likely, Godot would have come

drawn in by something within them.

He would not just be sitting high and dry

despatching messengers

Godot failed to come

for lack of a real yearning for him.

 

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