Before

(It was of November 5, 2008, the pregnant evening, the jubilant crowd, me and the big screen)


BARACK’S BREAKTHROUGH

The clamour is in the streets
A kid from Kenyan fields
Got mounted on the steed
The untameable unruly beast

Breaths are held in hope
Nothing will go untold
The way the reins he holds
The way the game unfolds

The beast is hard to tame
But the kid is in the game
What was before a shame
Is spoken by a new name

The Change;
The change profound has come
A Black is in White mansion
What Barack “Hussein� Obama has done
So can my son.



After

(It is April 28, 2009, streaming videos of lame speeches, lackluster press briefings, me and lone sadness)


FALLING CLAY

Wipe off that smile please,
Your pleasant face does not excite me
Any more.
I have been hit by a lightning bolt,
Or stung by a venomous spider.
My eyes now can pick up much wider
Frequencies of unusual range
In different domains,
And I see a ferocious beast
With hungry teeth
Beneath your visage.
Stay away,
Be off,
Off, Off, OFF,
You rouge, you thieve,
You urban cheat,
‘A wolf with a mask of sheep’

But why we mourn,
When we know you are in the town
On our own invitation,
Oblivious to its implications.
Yes, we made you for what you are,
But this was an error of our heart.
Cities are still made with naivety,
And high offices with careful deceit.
But struck by that cruel rock
We see you for what you are:
A wily stealer of dreams, snatching hopes
Adulterating what was written on our votes
No different from bandits sharing the pillage.
Be away, be away, be away,
Cities are not built to facilitate
Shameless hunting of defenseless preys.
One more time we are deceived,
But no more will this be one-way street.
The word that has been hurled your way
Is going to make it a clean slate.
And we are going to finally build
A city of citizen’s very own Will.