reward?
SERVANT: To be allowed to hold your little fists like tender lotus…buds and slip flower chains over your wrists; to tinge the soles of your feet with the red juice of ashoka petals and kiss away the speck of dust that may chance to linger there。
QUEEN: Your prayers are granted; my servant; you will be the gardener of my flower garden。
The Gardener 2
“Ah; poet; the evening draws near; your hair is turning grey。
“Do you in your lonely musing hear the message of the hereafter?”
“It is evening;” the poet said; “and I am listening because someone may call from the village; late though it be。
“I watch if young straying hearts meet together; and two pairs of eager eyes beg for music to break their silence and speak for them。
“Who is there to weave their passionate songs; if I sit on the shore of life and contemplate death and the beyond?
“The early evening star disappears。
“The glow of a funeral pyre slowly dies by the silent river。
“Jackals cry in chorus from the courtyard of the deserted house in the light of the worn…out moon。
“If some wanderer; leaving home; e here to watch the night and with bowed head listen to the murmur of the darkness; who is there to whisper the secrets of life into his ears; if I shutting my doors; should try to free myself from mortal bonds?
“It is a trifle that my hair is turning grey。
“I am ever as young or as old as the youngest and the oldest of this village。
“Some have smiles; sweet and simple; and some a sly twinkle in their eyes。
“Some have tears that well up in the daylight; and others tears that are hidden in the gloom。
“They all have need for me; and I have no time to brood over the afterlife。
“I am of an