The Big Man's Predicament
The Big Man stood in his shadowy room
Thinking how to become bigger,
Not knowing when the sun set or the moon rise
For neon tubes formed his constellation.
He has forgotten the village way that took him to his school,
The sun drenched golden fields where he flew kites,
His soul fluttering in the breeze, chasing the infinite,
Diving from the bridge into the canal,
As his fathers landlords dark eyed, red lipped daughter
Eyes deeper than the depths of the azure Mediterranean
Seen under a calm and starry evening,
Made him feel a veritable god.
The Big Man remembered his pending project,
The order from the white skinnd MNC,
Brown skin shaking hands with white skin
Becoming half-brown half-white, a lethal creature.
How he hated to take a leave that cost him dollars,
His dark, plump, silly wife,
Her silly fever, an irritating watery existence that refuses to end,
More hindrance than help,
Oh! Only if she hadn't been the potent politicians daughter.
He has forgotten the hoary headed lady,
With her wrinkled skin, her kind hazy eyes
A fair statue of alabaster,
Smiling that toothless smile showing battles well won,
A grand old bird that spread its wings
To hide her infants from rude gusts,
Who used to make sweets with coconut and jaggery
For her only grandson who had lost his mother at birth.
The Big Man planned to reap more success,
A monkey climbing up the slippery pole of society,
Limbs clasping the pole, face turned upwards, more brute than human,
Not realizing that his each upward movement ensures
A kick on the dark womb of the past,
A descent down the ladder of humanity