Feeling suddenly alone and unsure
Here I stand on the edge of my world
Chaotic at times, always moving just too slow
Fitting things in, moving things round
Always too little time, too many places to go
Things never done, friends never seen
Meet them in the Mall – how have you been?
Now the trip 35000 k’s alone
The stark mountains of Ladakh
Echo in my mind, forbidding grandeur
Sweeping grey moonscape mountains
Stripped down, in a fighter’s stance
They rise in revolt against the elements
Drop into the lakes and plains
Clouds tumble in the frosty air
Ominous, threatening
Etched in mind’s eye after just a glance
Time caught in a wasteland of eternity.
Standing on the edge of my world
Ticket in hand, apprehension
Squeezes the heart with icy fingers
A land of riotous colours and contrast
Threatens to consume my courage
Exuberant nation, a cacophony of sound
A medley of people nearly a billion strong
One of a small minority in my own land
Cross the world and I’m like a grain of sand
How to cope amongst the teeming throng, alone?
From the tip of Africa to
The majestic, magical
Monsoon rains will plummet earthwards
Dying shattered on the earthy ground
I go from the depths of winter’s cold
To
Adrift in a city 14.5million strong
The clatter of the train jogs and jostles me along
Lofty Kanjenchunga will smile on me once more
Then the endless rhythm of the track
Soon in the frenetic capital I’ll be back
Another
And here I’ll know if the search’s end I’ll find
In the calm and exquisite silence
The sharpened sword might cleave my mind
Is this the Assassin for whom I long?
