Why Godot Didn’t Come

They waited for him long
they called Godot
filling the interval
with a lot of small talk
their minds every now and then
returning to the expected visitor.
They did what you would guess
two tramps to do when thrown in on themselves,
a dreary landscape and a leafless skeleton-like tree
to share in between.

Did they really care enough
for him they apparently waited for?
Were they not all the time busy
with one thing or the other
quarrelling, then making up,
contemplating suicide
watching the drama of the other two
who happened to pass that way?
What vigil did they keep
to listen for the faintest footfall
of Godot who they said
they were waiting for?

The messenger finally arrived
to inform them: “He will not come.”
What heart-break do they suffer?
If the waiting had been serious
the non-arrival would have called forth
a sob, a shriek, an intenser response.
Or, mare likely, Godot would have come
drawn in by something within them.
He would not just be sitting high and dry
despatching messengers
Godot failed to come
for lack of a real yearning for him.