Path to success

Silent hills calling

Little creatures scuttling along

With the dusty roads of the township

Chirpers whistling mysterious symphonies

Apes yawning in the jungle

An ascetic life across the montage

Of maroon-coloured corrugated roof sheets of the township

Around me –

The stench from the stubborn billies.

I had a dream

I set out on the linear progression

On a paved road of the forefathers

A course that had been worn many times over

A sojourning through the ten-path route to success –

Iwe mewa

Rolling drums of razor sharp words beating tirelessly

Of the path to success

Of a devil known

And a decorated legacy

Through the agony

Awaits the recruits

As we stand in line for the gashing of our mortal hides

Till they learn the letters of life

Of a cocksure future of our bliss hereafter -

The tale of how we smiled on like a bridegroom

Expecting his long betrothed bride

We were blinded by love

And the desire not to soil the great family name

Nor to undermine the tradition of the fore fathers

Dear ma,

We have arrived from that sojourning

Of that land of the troubled weathers

In our hands empty

We bore our degrees

We traveled the route of the old wisdom

Overcome by the storm arisen at the seas

Of how come I am lost?

Why I wasn’t over and beyond the heartland by now

Dear ma,

I still bear those dreams

Only of yesteryears

Dreams of Inventions with next generation impact

To be an artist

To draw a picturesque future

But I was knocked down

By the stinging blows of your words

And the fear of shame

From the drum beats of looming exile

Daunting vision

Larger than life itself

How ten years after

Like yesterday I still

Hear the same voices

From behind the silent hills

The lines of the little creatures

Dribbling in the dust roads

Of the chirpers whistling…

And around me

The stench of the stubborn Billies

Still -

on the path to success.