The Traveller

I start walking at the break of the first light and only break bread at the wake of the night.

Towards the east, I walk, through murky paths along the sentient jungles and through malaise streets along man-made structures.

“I don’t swim nor sail;

I nor ride neither rail;

I don’t fly or fall.

I walk; every way and all.

I walk; brisk and tall.”

I have seen reticent mountains talking through the zephyr, whispering to me the secrets of mankind’s end.

I have heard birds of many hues curse at us.

I have danced in the rain at the arrival of monsoon and I have seen lifeless bodies of children and cattle floating in the flood.

I have slept on beaches of white sand with mild waves of the ocean washing my feet on a humid summer night and I have seen tsunamis wash away lives, homes and hopes with it.

I have seen blooming lotuses and lilies over moonlit lakes and I have seen rivers of flowing plastic waste.

I have seen nameless trees and have touched their timeless barks; the rattle of their leaves keep begging me to spare their life.

I have smelt wildflowers of the jade vine and I have smelt the pungent toxic fumes of industries that produce goods we don’t need.

I have tasted ripe, moist, tropical fruits and the condensed flesh of rotten farm animals and fish.

I have filled my stomach and my senses.

I have touched dew with my naked feet and have licked snow.

I have seen plastic bottles atop Mount Everest and have tasted pollution with my tongue.

I drank sweet water from an oasis after walking for days through the golden sand dunes of the Gobi desert and have drunk water from a drain after walking through the markets of unkind men who had gold to lend but no water to give.

I have slept with wild animals and beautiful women from unknown lands; I have been loved and mistreated.

I have lived through my worst fears and my most unreal dreams.

I have lived through wars and feasts.

I have been sick and strong.

I have been right and wrong.

I have been excited and bored.

I have been intimated and amused.

I have lived for the sake of living and wasted all the time I was given to waste.

I followed the sun and I never walked west.

In my tombstone they wrote:

“I don’t have a home to go back to,

I don’t know where I want to go.

Perhaps; I just like going.”