When are we heaviest?
Is it at dawn when,
Carrying all our hopes we trudge to work?
Or at dusk when we return carrying disappointments?

I set out for work at dawn;
Heavy with everything I expected from this day;
Unsure if today will be better than yesterday.
Something in its beginning could foretell its ending.

Once outside the house,
A little accident caused me to look skywards:
A droplet of water on my brow –
A little bird flying a solitary course overheard.

I investigated,
And ‘twas certainly water.
According to a myth, if it’d been droppings,
Then what a lucky day I faced!

No clouds suggesting rain;
No trees within miles perimeter;
No PHCN poles . . . no nothing.
‘Twas certainly from that creature.

It couldn’t have been water it drank;
Couldn’t have been urine –
Do birds even urinate!
It had to be – a tear drop.

I paused my thoughts,
My worries, my naggings,
And all I was expecting from the young day,
And regarded the bird.

‘Twas surely crying,
But who would ever know why?
Maybe it was heartbroken –
Chanced upon its mate pants-down in betrayal!

Or maybe it just lost a loved one.
Maybe rains “demolished” its nest.
Maybe the economy of the air had dipped.
If they bought and sold, maybe prices had risen.

Maybe a catastrophe from we humans.
Maybe a bomb….
The day hadn’t even begun, me thought,
But ‘twas already culminating in disappointments for some folks.

Had God given it the gift of speech,
It would not just cry; it would say what hurteth it so,
Like I who blab every minute
About what and what God should do for me.

Yet again would I blab:
I prayed for it unaware….
“Dear God, reach that bird,
And soothe her pain.”

IDKT Team

Initiative for Diaspora Knowledge Transfer (IDKT)
http://www.diasporadirect.org