THIS IS NOT MY GOODBYE

Picture Courtesy: www.thinkthink.wordpress.com


PROLOGUE


This is a glass of scotch,
No ice,
Hot and heavy,
Leaves you sweating like crazy.


This is bare bones,
No flesh,
Straight up ugly,
Nothing fancy,
Yet far from ordinary,
Nowhere near everyday,
Like no other day.


Metaphors,
Rhyme,
Rhythm,
Puns and riddles,
You’ll find none here,
If you should come across one,
Then that’s how this tale chose to be told,
I had no hand in that,
I only do as I’m told,
I’m not one to protest,
You all know I find words hard to come by,
I do not talk much.


This is a party,
A celebration of a journey,
But I’m sorry to say,
There’s no music here,
You’ll find neither drink nor food here,
If that’s what you’re here for,
Now’s the time to angle for the door,
I’ll hold no grudge,
If you choose to do so,
For honestly,
I feel like doing so too,
Sad part is,
I’m the one running this show.
It get’s no ridiculous than this,
Parties and celebrations
With music food and drinks a no show?
What next?
Concerts without a band,
Football pitches bald as vultures,
People watching television without television sets?


This dude’s off his rocker,
He should be clapped in chains,
With four white walls for company,
Instead you give him an audience and a stage?
Draw the curtains,
Turn the lights out,
Somebody get that lunatic off my stage,
Thank you.


THE MAIN EVENT

The only certainty,
Was uncertainty.
I sat down,
Behind my computer,
Somewhat sheepishly,
After assaulting the keys
Of my poor keyboard for a while,
Somewhat reluctantly,
On Friday, February 5, 2010
I published my first note on facebook.


I did not bother tag anyone in it,
Just posting it,
Was enough for me.
After posting,
I felt as though I just climbed a mountain,
Can you blame me?
I had not written a piece in a while.


It took me over a month,
To publish my next note,
Don’t ask me why,
I have not the slightest idea why.
On Monday, March 29, 2010,
I published my second facebook note,
Titled “MAN ABOUT TOWN”,
I sent out invitations in the form of tags,
To as many as I could,
Unsure of what the response might be.


If only I knew,
I’d have 37 comments in total
And 8 people liking that particular note,
I would have published my second note
Much earlier than I did.


It’s been almost seven months,
Since I began writing on facebook.
I survived the 5 pieces a week challenge,
It became my driving force,
I could not fail,
And I did not,
In fact,
I began enjoying that challenge.
At a point,
What initially looked daunting,
Became ordinary,
I turned to the newspapers,
A bigger stage,
I had the Daily Graphic
And Mirror in the palm of my hands,
Courted them for a month
And grew tired of them,
Between their politics,
Typos and pompous
We’re doing you a favour attitude,
I thought it best we part ways,
I felt them an inappropriate stage.


When a friend suggested the myjoyonline web page,
I thought her crazy,
Yet respected her for thinking me crazy enough
To tow her line of crazy.
I thought her idea crazy,
Not because I felt my work unworthy of that stage
Nor for fear that my work was inadequate,
Rather because,
I had no idea what they were all about.
In no time,
What seemed imposing became ordinary,
I was strutting around the myjoyonline offices
As though I owned the place,
Calling the editor at will,
It felt good,
But grew boring at a point after a few publications,
Somewhat annoying too,
They preferred I give them pieces for free,
Just like the newspapers,
So that was my cue to leave that stage too.


Then came the blog,
Right from designing it,
Through to publishing on it.
That was a feeling quite indescribable,
On days when I sat back surfing the net,
I’d type out my name in the google search engine,
And my blog would pop up in the results,
Felt like a little boy with a new toy.


Throughout this journey,
I’ve met amazing people,
I’ve learnt so much about myself.
My ultimate lesson learnt on this journey is this:
You will get so much farther in this life if you
Set goals far higher than the clouds and
Pursue them as though you were an alien
In a foreign land without the possibility of a helping hand.
Imagine walking into the office of the editor
Of the Daily Graphic Newspaper
And telling him,
Not asking or pleading
But rather telling him,
Why he needs your work in his newspaper.
Bottom line is,
It is better going it all alone
And asking for help when you reach a dead end,
Rather than anticipating a dead end
And calling for help when you’ve not even tried.
You stand to loose nothing if you try it all
By yourself first,
Regardless the result,
Whether positive or negative,
You’ve become a better person in so doing.


Whoever came up with the word
GOODBYE,
Probably must have been drunk
Or must have had a concussion,
How can parting ways,
Regardless how long or short be good?
There’s nothing good in that bye,
People always cry or feel something missing
After good bye.
So today I’m not saying goodbye,
What I’ve been doing for the past months
Has become routine,
Too familiar,
Made me too comfortable in my shoes,
Truth be told,
I work best when challenged,
Under mounting pressure,
Walking the thin line called uncomfortable,
Funny thing is,
That is my comfortable.


So today,
I take leave of you for a while,
Make no mistake about it,
This is never my goodbye,
There’s nothing good about that,
I take pride in the fact that I made
So many friends on this journey of not only mine
But ours,
I’m glad to declare that by your comments,
I never wrote a piece worthy of the tag “CRAP”.
After such a roller coaster ride,
This is my pause,
To catch my breath,
Sit back,
Inhale
Exhale
And tinker with the big picture,
In an effort to take the next step up the ladder,
So when you wake tomorrow morning to find
There’s no note of mine,
Neither have u been tagged by me,
Know that probably I’m seated under a mango tree somewhere,
Singing with the emerald green humming bird,
Having tea with a gazelle
Taking naps on the fronds of coconut trees
Planning the next journey for tomorrow.
Curtain’s not drawn,
Hat’s off,
This is where I take a bow,
Going away for a while,
I’ll soon be back in an encore,
God bless,
This is not my goodbye.


THE END

This is the beginning,
There’s no end to this tale,
Catch you soon,
With more tales from “The Graveyard Shift”.