RECTANGLE OF LIFE

Verification of cards at every public place
shops, restaurants, ATM's, kiosks, airports
the list endless, humans in a race to amass them
proof of survival collapsed into obese wallets
with multiplied card slots
currency notes pushed to pillion rider's seat.

In the past, cards meant playing cards or greeting cards
playing cards' dog ears exchanged hands during summer or winter breaks
some corner shelf now stacks mildew creased old birthday and new year cards
UNO cards of my daughter's childhood, a shared pass time of ours even now in winter break.

Now cards have many aliases
Credit card, debit card, health care card.
insurance card, national identification card, loyalty cards
some labels unheard of then, now household names
some laminated, some electronic
each updated model an upgraded verification.

Frantic at the loss or theft of a credit or debit card
cards are treasured, they are our daily oxygen,
these small rectangles rule our lives,
who are we without them?
Lost travellers in this modern path of life.

So similar are we to the rectangles we carry
an expiry date printed on each card
we likewise have one each etched the day we are born.

Every traveller one day reaches the expiry date,
a dug-out rectangle on the ground tucks the body
the only rectangle that slips by whole life
rests him or her at the end.
Some cloaked in a coffin
some just buried in the ground
some burnt on a pyre, similar shapes
all preserved cards just waste papers.