On June 19, 2010.

 

Last evening

While I waited

Still

In motionless traffic

 

I looked out of the window

And surveyed the scene…

 

Gushing water

That miraculously transformed

Into a raucous river

Where there was

Up until thirty minutes ago

A staid, grey asphalt road

 

(It even had a name

so established it was in identity and purpose)

 

The skies were gloomy…morbidly grim

And the rain poured

In an angry embittered attack

Like a hurl of abuses

 

And yet surprisingly

The people were smiling, laughing

Enjoying the stormy weather

Disturbingly and nervously out of rhythm

 

And I saw in that moment

A co-existence of law and exception

Of frenzied activity and unaffected stillness

Of pleasure and pain

Of gaiety and gravity

Of romance and indifference

 

Without principle

And without story

Contained and composed

On a single undivided canvas

 

Appearances begged my mind

For some explanation

For keen appreciation

For some semblance of balance and purpose

For coherence and cognition

In an agreeable reference to established truth

 

But Truth, I realized

Is not an establishment

 

Neither is it a destination

To which we must undertake a pilgrimage

 

It isn’t a charming euphemism

Nor is it a secret

That stays concealed within a cryptic code

 

And it isn’t a promise either

Awaiting fulfillment

In the distant unseen future

 

Truth is in the experience of NOW

It refuses to account for itself

Lest such account become next moment’s lie!

Truth by inherent virtue

Cannot and does not lie

And it does not care much for Reason or Rhyme

 

It is neither old nor new

It disappears as soon as it appears

It isn’t always staid and grey or

Named and established

In short,

It isn’t always a permanent asphalt road.