The gateway to heaven

-K Radhakumar
To the kingdom of heaven he went
Riding on a flying chariot
Drawn by two winged horses.
After taking a drink of water
With the elixir of youth in it
He felt sleepy along the way
And slept solidly for years on end.
It appears he could outdo
Kumbh karna of the Mahabharat
And Rip Van Winkle of the recent past
When it came to the matter of slumber.
At long last he woke up
And found himself in a strange place
Stranger than anything he could dream of
And got completely lost in it.
His mission proved to be
A journey into the unknown, he thought.
First he was very angry with himself
And then his anger and frustration
Turned against the poor horses.
He cracked his whip
But the horses did not move.
At that moment, he saw a cherub
Coming towards him with a wide smile
And before the newcomer said anything
He asked him with a curt nod,
‘Can you tell me the way to heaven?’
‘No’, said he in a matter-of-fact way.
‘Not I.
Nor the horses, for that matter.
It’s you who ride the horses
And control them as they move.
There’s no point in whipping
The poor animals’, continued he
And promptly burst into tears.
The wind was howling around
And it sounded like the wailing of lost souls.
‘Ah, me!’, he sighed.
A lost soul!
He cried for his lost youth
And felt he wouldn’t be able
Even to relive it in his imagination.