Joker's Adieu

Recently the joker has come to the news, albeit for the wrong reasons as the evil guy in "Dark Knight", enacted superbly by the late Heath Ledger. Though my poem might seem to have been influenced by Heath Ledger, it is actually not. I wrote this poem when I was in college though (actually I was 20 years, 9 months and 5 days old when I wrote it). Hope you enjoy it.

Joker's Adieu
The joker took the centrestage,
For twenty years, nine months and five days
He had been doing just so -
Always appearing at the wrong moment,
Fumbling on the ropes, mumbling through the lines
All with a painted white face.
"Always wrong - never right" -
That was his watchword
For twenty years, nine months and five days.

This time, too, he came on the stage
When Bozo was juggling the hats -
The audience loved to see him that way -
"Always wrong, never right"

This was to be his last night -
He said he couldn't do it anymore,
So he came to the stage with a painted face,
"Always wrong, never right" -
Fumbling, mumbling, he told them all -
His final, parting speech:
"Last night, I tried and tried in vain
To solve a jigsaw puzzle, part by part,
Sometime in the morning, I would try again
To solve it right from the start
Till that day, my friends, I bow to you
And with a smile, I bid adieu..."

Perhaps he had some more to say
But the poison encroached his silly heart -
He fumbled, rushed through the lines
and stumbled, stuttered and fell to the ground,

"Always wrong, never right",
The audience burst into laughter,
They loved to see him that way...

To Sirs (and Madams) with Love

I know this site is mainly for stories and poems but then the wise men (and women) say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I recently completed a yearlong long distance (via satellite) course in Business Management from IIM Calcutta and during the year, it seemed to people that I had taken a lot of notes. Now that the course is over, I am letting people take a peek at the notes I have taken and bask in some fond memories of our teachers ...