Not a Fairy Tale

“Normal day…, Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.” – Mary Jean Iron

He built himself a house,

            his foundations,

            his stones,

            his walls,

            his roof overhead,

            his chimney and smoke,

            his view from the window.

He made himself a garden,

              his fence,

              his thyme,

              his earthworm,

              his evening dew.

He cut out his bit of sky above.

And he wrapped the garden in the sky

and the house in the garden

and packed the lot in a handkerchief

and went off

lone as an arctic fox

through the cold

unending

rain

into the world.

‘Fairy Tale’ by Miroslav Holub/Translated from the Czech by Ian Milner

And so, I think, because the mind has been set at that intensity. I travel but no longer care where I get to. I eat but savour nothing. I sleep but rest nowhere. I am exhausted but don’t want to lie down as I may not have the strength to get up and pack another handkerchief.

I live only to find what has died within me.

 

Padhāro Mārè Dès 2

“The real meditation is … the meditation on one’s identity. Ah, voilà une chose!! You try it. You try finding out why you’re you and not somebody else. And who in the blazes are you anyhow? Ah, voilà une chose!” – Ezra Pound

Never considered or intended a sequel and had secretly admired Fauzia’s ability to pen a remarkable continuation.

I deliberated for days and paid no attention to the lure but there was no way out. I have succumbed!

*

Ever wondered what it feels like when you are treated as a second-class citizen in your own country by your own countrymen in front of people of other nationalities?