The slipping away of sand
In the silence of the night;
Each speck dissipating,
Vanishing from the sight.
Not the sand in hand, but glass,
Stuck and snug inside for years!
Today the glass has cracked,
Won’t hold the weight again
Of time and rounded grain,
Of bound and turning round,
It surely will escape
Into the scenery,
Onto the lofty breeze,
Towards the mountains high,
Towards the life of ease!
I asked him one day about a ray
Of a shining bright light
I asked him if I could or should
Drench into the delight
He twitched, as if in agony
Of multitudes amiss
And looked at me straight in the eye
And advised me with this
That day I had his place he said
Not his but similar
A place that I had failed to see
And if I not, will err
A step is what I had to be
For others to build on;
For if I don’t and let me be
The others will then not
And that, he said, will put an end
To an era and a race
To a life that has just begun
And needs to build on pace
He told me to stop and slow down
To let them move ahead
Told me to be the leading path
Under their foot instead
For if I not, they might then lose
The courage to move on,
To lay the bricks that will one day
Shine as the founding stone.
MeharAli 