My Mentor by Rishan Singh

The day you left us I’ll never forget.
You gave your time to everyone else but yourself,

if only He hadn’t chosen your rose on that day,
I keep telling myself,
in hope that you will return.

I stay awake at night wondering
if you’ll send me a sign that you are alright,

but for some odd reason, I’m disillusioned.

I remember your smile, and the passionate love in
those ever sparkling eyes, and
the tears just fall, one after another.
Your heart, smile, love was so pure and passionate. You
left a legacy etched in my mind. Your purity was your kindness,
never a hidden agenda;
always the one to raise the spirits of others.

Never in a million years did I ever think your desire
would tarnish or erase you from this world.

You are now an image, a memory, still the mentor:
the painting on my heart, never forgotten, and never will be…
Goodbye, —- —–, my brother.

Rishan Singh is a South African poet, a biologist, a writer and a qualified English Language Instructor. He holds qualifications from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Cambridge University in the UK. He presented the poem ‘Definition of Life’ at the 15th Poetry Africa community writing forum, an event at which Maputlane Wa Bofelo, one of the speakers and commentators, was present. In addition, an exerpt from one of his poems has been included in a book (belonging to a collection) edited by Peter Clutterbuck.