In Defence of a Poet!

“Oh, who is he?” She pointed her finger in my direction.

“A crazy man. A crackpot. He has totally lost it. He is someone who is of no particular importance,” he said, his voice cutting like a serrated knife across my fibrous heart.

“Why, what’s his crime?”

“He writes poems that hardly rhyme.”

They both then laughed and walked away. Of course they knew I was listening to them. But they thought I was too naïve to understand such mature sarcasm. They thought I was too passive to retort to their condescending jibes.

But of course I couldn’t possibly retort. They laugh at my choice of weapon. A poem is a saber that’s too fragile to fight with. Nor is it a shield that can defend you aptly. You do not enter the ring with a poem. You are bound to be defeated.

Every fucking day, their belief that I am a bombastic fool gets entrenched. I try not to care but they say it to my face. They doubt my sanity. They deploy barbed comments as and when they want, comfortable in the knowledge that I am a fool who won’t get it.

Yet I do get it and it hurts.

But then, I don’t know anything else. In defense of that stupid, fumbling poet, I write…………!!!

May I have your attention please?

Stop all your work, from your forehead mop off that salty grease.

Chill out and relax,

Forget all about those stressful telephone calls and fax.

Strap on your seatbelts, what you thinking about?

We are about to begin a journey across Neverland, so you better huddle and clout!

Maybe it’s a glimpse into the world of a hero, noble,

Or it’s about Morality and Righteousness – a fable.

Maybe their particular order just entertains,

Words are all that they could unleash, unrestrained.

Fools, they maybe or mightily proud,

Yet they conjure up a beautiful mirage of rainbows and cloud.

Maybe they don’t know the difference between a prose and poem,

Maybe they botch up badly and are overly confident of their adjectives and idioms,

Yet once in a while, inadvertently or knowingly, they write

Few lines that would inspire a dejected soul, illuminating his life giving him joy and delight.