BYSTANDER, AT AN INSURANCE MEETING

BENOY.P.J

Almost half an hour had passed

Before the meeting started

Half an hour while the neckties were being tied

Looking at it from my seat outside

The act looked familiar

When a friend helped someone with it

It looked as if the executioner

Was helping him with the knot.

But the setting here was different

The company was selling insurance

A  safe life (and death!)

It assured

Somebody from the podium

Addressed the crowd

(They were no more a crowd,

Agents, they were called.)

“Can you sell me a life

For I don’t have one!”

I heard someone moaning

“No, no! You can’t have a good life

With us

What we sell

Is only the assurance

For those who have none

One that is postponed no end

So that one grasps out for it

And never reaches.

Now I know

That the knot has been tied.