The Tale of Kora
Th. Wangam *
As I walk down that lane,
That lane on which a project lay
In a race with eternity itself,
A gory image of a half-man greets me.
A long shadow of a monument,
Erected over the place where
Two heroes met their end,
Years before, an eerie setting.
There ended the similarity,
For this death wasn't heroic sacrifice willingly given,
A pitiful pact with death for a paltry sum,
A life lost for nothing.
Blood gushing from a deformed form,
Devoid of both limbs and yet,
A man's wish to live for a second more,
Never have I seen such courage,
Reminiscent of the heroes of yore.
And yet I wonder, could he have lived?
Had there been prompt care,
And more caring people.
Instead it was the callousness that did him in,
And this I find hard to forgive.
Of the ones who gave him the gift,
The gift of death and the sum to make the pact with,
We shan't think of them.
The black sheep are they among us, and this while,
A momentary light was shining in a dark land.
And for this foolishness, all of us shall
Pay, with life and blood.
And the sangai shan't prance again,
Neither the people gather in its honor.
And the world shall shun this place,
Where life is cheap and death cheaper.
But shall we forget the place it was before,
In days gone by, when it was still the land of jewels.
Yonder in the park, of which it is said
The oldest polo ground in the world,
Children played amid laughter and joy,
And the old sat with dreamy eyes and smiles.
And yet it is the half-man,
Who visits me every night,
And retells his woeful tale.
Mohammed Kora was his name.
* Poem written by Th. Wangam who can be contacted at frazerwang(at)yahoo(dot)com
This poem was webcasted on May 13 2012.
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