Poetry Corner: A Sense of the Occasion 

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As the morning rises

He rises from a bed

Not of roses

He misses sleep

He battles wakefulness

And wakes from sleeplessness

 

As the morning progresses

He jumps out of his automobile

His new model

And hurries into one of their rickety mini-buses

Trusting to cut fuelling stress

And prune running expenses

 

He wades through the traffic

The fare he pays

Makes no fair sense

It’s way beyond a man’s expenses

 

He hurries away from home

Knowing what awaited

Knowing what he had provided

Knowing it would suffice not for a home

But knowing not how to up an income

 

He is buried in thoughts about how

About how to make some ends meet

How to buy fish or meat

How to beat down the soaring prices

How to scuttle the suffocating crises

He does not know even now

As he hurries to begin work now

 

II

She hurries to a bargaining point

Knowing not what awaited

But knowing what she needed

Knowing what she held in her *toma*

That would not meet the bargain

Knowing not how to fix her *toma’s* empty woes

Even to buy tomatoes

 

She is buried in thoughts about how

About how to make an evening meal…suffice

That stew and the rice

She does not know even now

As she hurries to cook now

 

III

They hurry into the boarding school

Knowing not what awaited

But knowing they must be fed

Knowing what the dinning table offered

Knowing it wouldn’t get them satisfied

Knowing not when the next table would be  laid…in school

 

They are buried in thoughts about how

About what to eat now

About how to add to a lean plate…later

About how long they needed to wait

Inside the school’s gate

Would the plates wait to be placed later?

They do not know even now

 

IV

They hurry out from a higher learning

Knowing not what awaited

But knowing they must gain employment

Knowing not what pertains in the job market

But believing to start living

Living one day from a higher earning

 

They are buried in thoughts about how

About how to find a job

About how to make a living

About how long they needed to wait

Whether to expect the harvest now

Or late

They do not know even now

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