His eyesight failed him,
But in his soldier's hands,
Still held like a sword,
Was the mirror of couplets.

By every post came
Friends' verses to correct,
But his rosary-chain
Was a string of debts.

[From: Both Sides of the Sky] (anthology ed. by Eunice de Souza)

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mirza-ghalib-in-old-age/