Freedom at Last!

Prompt: The words "eating hemlock" should appear in the poem.

FREEDOM AT LAST!



Porus the Parsi, tired of life,
Maddened by worries, tortured by strife,
Made up his mind to die one day,
Eating hemlock, he decided, was the easiest way.

Down to the market, the man went to see,
If in any shop, a hemlock plant might be,
Shy but determined, he met with a trader,
And asked if with him, hemlocks there were.

The trader fetched the plant, lovingly wrapped,
Fresh did it look, and with a silver foil 'twas capped,
Porus paid up the cost, and added a large tip,
Then he ran to his home at a very fast clip.

Bringing up the courage required many hours of work,
His resolve, once made, he could not easily shirk,
He wrote a final letter, and placed it on the sill,
And put beside it, his last testament and will.

Removing the foil, he added the plant to the pot,
He boiled water with it till it was burning hot,
Finally, he sat, and poured out his potion,
That he would die painfully, he had no notion.

He drank up the poison, leaving not the tiniest bit,
He drooled, he frothed, and threw a major body fit,
His arms came up tight and his legs just crumpled,
His shirt and pant looked all very nicely rumpled.

He shivered and sniggered, and repeatedly sighed,
And with both his feet in the air, he finally died.

© Dr. Taher Kagalwala, 2004