PERFECT PEACE

Picture Courtesy: www.hickerphoto.com


Take off your shoes,
What? Scorpions and spiders,
You big baby, I wish they could hear you.
Roll up your sleeves and
Pull up the legs of your pants,
Your bag?
Leave that behind,
There are no cabs where we’re going
No need for your mascara or combs either
You can even throw away that
Noisemaker of a cell phone of yours
But I doubt you’d want to do that,
Typical “city dwellers”.


Come along now,
Don’t slouch, please double step,
Lest I forget,
What are those on your feet? Shoes, you say?
Kindly get rid of those hideous things,
Do you want to assault the earth?
Armani? You don’t say,
I’ll let you in on a secret,
Draw closer,
Armani stole hide off a poor cow’s back
And gave birth to those over priced monstrosities
Wreaking havoc on your suffocating feet and the poor ground.
Free those feet,
Let them breathe
Massage the dirt with your toes
Feel them breathe…...


Follow me far out into the hills,
Past the oak trees,
Walk by the stream,
Dip your toes gently in,
Feels good eh?
Careful, don’t be a brute,
You do know fishes have houses in there right?
Shush
Listen to the wind caress the grass,
The leaves whispering in the wind,
The trees swaying their hips from side to side.
Take it all in
Breathe in the air,
Harmony,
Beauty
Welcome to heavenly peace.


Remote?
Rustic?
Surely you are drunk on all that clean air,
I do not blame you,
All you have in the city is smog and smoke
With an unhealthy helping of dirt,
Why else would you find a place this peaceful rustic and remote?
The city you say,
Advancement?
Technology?
You find these appealing?
The caustic landscape
Strewn with clumsy buildings,
Exhaust fumes
And smells of caustic perfumes
Choking the clouds,
Cars running after each other like two year olds
As though the Dakar rally were in town,
Horns blaring,
Radios at full blast,
Scorching sun,
Air conditioning,
Erratic rainfall patterns,
You call that peace?


Cellular phones,
Pickpockets,
Common thieves,
Tainted meat,
Unwholesome food,
Stressful jobs,
Newspapers,
Plants high on coke and smoke,
Flowers grown in greenhouses,
Hours spent in gyms,
Running in parks,
Trips to the dietician
For fear that you might be putting on weight,
Ground littered with rubbish,
As barren as the desert,
Cows resembling chicken,
Cows giving off milk in powder form,
Goats looking like grasscutters
And grasscutters looking like bolt cutters,
Yeah, sounds really peaceful to me.


Walk with me,
Ah!! Here comes the rain,
For a moment I thought he had failed me,
Where are you running off to?
Afraid you might get wet?
Silly, come, feel the touch of rain drops on your
Chemically assaulted skin,
Come purify your wilting skin,
You’ll thank me later on, I guarantee that.
Stick out your tongue,
Taste the rain drops,
Germs? Typical city dwellers,
Living in the midst of filth
Yet they find comfort in covered drains choking on garbage,
Out of sight, out of mind I guess.
Taste the clouds my dear,
You can get no closer to the clouds than this,
Smiling eh?
Tastes way better than tap water you say,
See the cows grazing in the fields,
They look like elephants,
See the butterflies among the flowers,
Here you go, that’s a real rose,
What you grow in the city is no better than weeds,
Breathe in; ever felt anything like this before?
No? How sad.
Prancing around like kings when in truth
You’re all dying from smoke filled lungs
Unwholesome food
And traffic jams.


Leave the city,
Embrace what you call rustic and remote
The countryside, the village,
That is where real life exists,
Money, cars, mansions
Just prisons and shackles that give you palpitations,
Indigestion and respiratory tract infections
Throw away those shoes,
Abandon those unsightly metallic imitations
Of horses and donkeys you call cars,
Come walk barefoot in the grass,
Pick cotton,
Scare the crows as they steal bags of corn from the fields,
Run after the cows,
Roll among the cabbages in the cabbage patch,
Eat mangoes while they still dangle from the trees,
Catch fish fresh from the stream
In a straw hat with a line on a stick,
No need for fishing rods and bait
Just coax the fish onto that lonely line,
Lay in the hay stacks
While watching the sunset,
Wait on the caterpillar to mount wings
Listen to life take flight on angel wings
Inhale Exhale,
Feel the inner peace,
Welcome to utopia,
Welcome to perfect peace.