Out through the window flashed past,
Assorted scenes one by one.
Sky scrapers and mud hovels,
Steaming cities and peaceful hamlets,
Row upon row of maize and wheat,
Bent down under the weight of grain.
Cars gliding along crowded streets
Children school bound in crisp uniforms
Cattle grazing on distant hills
Cadets on parade beside their tented camps
Smoke coiling up from tall chimneys
Sizzling cascades from the heights
Swirling streams and glistening rivulets
Silky meadows and tall mountains
Disposed not I to enjoy the scenes
My mind moored to the final halt
Saw nothing before, but the station
Fellow travellers – a flaunting menagerie
Communed to few, connected to none.
At every halt, some exited out
And strangers came in to fill the space
But all to myself-my eyes far set
Damning the distance, I waited on and on
Myself a wretched lone traveller!
Like a sailor lost in the sea,
Restless I was to reach the shore.
My ears agog to shouts of welcome
My body eager for the warm embrace
I paced the aisles and counted the miles
Impatient and irate, I grew
I dreamt, my life – a jig saw puzzle
The pieces neatly fitting together
On arrival after a tedious trip
Once and for all, at my terminus.
With my gaze fixed beyond the horizon
Caring not to see what lies before
I continue to travel miles on end
To a place that outdistances me ever!