The Singer and the King

My poor hut doesn’t contain anything

Of which I can be rightly proud

No money, no gold, no furniture

Not even clothes to cover myself in culture

Everything here speaks of my poverty aloud.

But when you step into my abode

And command me a song to sing

Then my heart is filled with pride

My wet eyes, then I don’t care to hide

It’s my joyful honor to obey my King.

That’s when all that is discordant and -

Harsh in my life of hunger and thirst

Melts into the sweet harmony of a hymn

Worship and adoration flow like stream

The singer within in pride would burst!

That’s when I get drunk with the wine

Of your presence and lose my bearing

And forget the huge difference between

Instead of prostrating at your feet, been

Calling you friend, of deference not caring!

              

Xavier Bage

Fri, March 17, 2017

Honorable Principal Sir, Lighten My Burden Please

Honorable Principal Sir, could you

Please take some books out

And make my schoolbag light

Everyday, carrying this load to school

On my back like a donkey

Is an uphill task, a grueling fight!

Eight periods on a class day mean

Eight books and eight class work books

Make the sachet weighty like stones

And to add homework material on

 Imagine how my shoulders feel

Can’t learning be without breaking bones?

Principal Sir, Can you turn schooling

A little less painful, less burdened

It makes me cry silent tears

Who can I complain to; tell my pain?

There are big heads so wise and grave

They fill my little heart with fears!

Xavier Bage

Thurs, March 16, 2017

The Weak Boy's Plea

 

O teacher, O dear Ma’am,

If you don’t coach me for the exam

I’ll surely fail

Daddy is busy in his business

Mummy is not all that educated

I can’t expect them, me to bail

If you don’t coach me one to one

My train will surely derail.

Which subject I find easy, you ask

Well, to me none of them is easy

All of them are hard

I grasp not how those sums are solved

Grammar, history, geography, science

All are marked red in my progress card

Four times I carried letters home

“Come to the office to discuss your ward!”

I’ll definitely fall on this path

Tricky and slippery, unfeeling and unkind

to my tender shaky feet

I understand why so many hate school

Why so many drop away midway

To survive so many learn to cheat

I won’t,  I want you to hold my hand

And lead me, my future to meet!

Xavier Bage

Wed, March 15, 2017

The Angel on the Morning Walk Path

Suddenly, my eyes burst open

Well before the first cock crow

Awoken by a piercing pain in my back

Hundred questions storm into

My already aching, restless mind

Like blood sucking mosquitoes

Demanding immediate answers

Will I live to see another day?

How to keep my world from falling apart?

How to make my dear ones secure?

What can I do when pushed beyond?

I walk out of my door harassed

Take the absent-minded steps

Meet a dove on my path, unafraid

Not far from my feet, a still angel

Her eyes look into my burdened eyes

Speaking in her silent language divine

Why do you want to hold certitudes?

Why torture yourself with questions?

They may or may not be answered

Walk with joy, step out with spring

Your world is safe in caring hands.

Xavier Bage

Mon, March 13, 2017

The Misfit

 

I didn’t fit in

I’ll never fit in

I’ll never be what

The structure before me wants

It wanted to bend me like a pin

It couldn’t, I wouldn’t

So it has thrown  me out

To the waste bin!

I can’t fit in dishonesty

Which feigns grand cordiality

Where justice sits like Lazarus

Hungry, begging, naked outside

Despicable disparity!

My heart will be always outcast

In the house of vulgar vanity!

The vocation to love and foster

Orphaned souls, with truth to cater

Can’t fit in where hypocrisy struts

While it pampers its own pets

The lot undeserving, spoiled, waster

Shunning all ideals and principles

Passed through selfish twister!

Xavier Bage

Sat, March 11, 2017