He witnessed the rise and fall of the tides

Of the sea that seemed so milky in the moonlight.

Gloating over its graceful strides,

The rumble of the colossal sea was all he could hear that silent night.


The stars twinkled in the darkness,

And the moon in the blackness

Gazed dotingly at him and his boat,

As the decrepit carrier carted its master swiftly afloat.


How long had he been at the sea? He wondered.

In the company of the clouds that thundered.

A companion in their joy and gloom,

He realized that he hadn’t been home since many moons.


He was miles and miles away from home.

Yet his hands unceasingly rowed the heavy oars.

Tearing past the viscous foam,

His heart wept more and more.


Any piece of the earth he’d set his foot on,

He knew he could never regain what he’d lost.

For his loved ones were long gone,

Preys of the war painful and prolonged.


He was a lone ranger,

A lone survivor in danger.

Away the famished man was from his nation,

Concealing himself from God’s ungodly creations.


Life would have started afresh and anew,

By the time he reached a place his eyes never knew.

An epiphany dawned upon him, distressing but true-

He may never live to see the utopia he’d always wanted to.


A place devoid of guns and swords;

Of deafening bullets and piercing words;

Of blood impregnating the swards;

Of the bloodied cadavers of men and their wards.


The lone traveler in despondency

Envisaged wistfully

A time when everyone would live peacefully,

A dream that’d never converge with reality.

Shifa