Potpourri of Poetry

The Reich that they said would last for a thousand years

Disappeared in the lifetime of Albert Speer’s.

* * *

The one-night life of a firefly is quickly spent,

Ours may continue longer, but is the same at the end.

Where we come remains a mystery, my friend

Nor where we go after, do we fully comprehend.

* * *

Sometimes there are blessings in disguise,

Some sayings that appear to be true are often lies.

And some that may look very wise

May turn out to be otherwise.

* * *

Which is the way to Samarkand?

It’s Southeast from Scotland.

From New Zealand, at the far end,

Follow the direction of the North Western wind.

Nothing in this world is absolute, my friend,

Whether in the sky or on dry land.

* * *

A driver who often changes lane

May be considered insane.

One who divorces again and again

May experience fiscal pain.

* * *

When I become a "Hun-toe-toe"

I may also act like one in-toto.

* * *

"Aikkankurun" is not the same as "vakkankurun" by any means

Though the two could merge together in various degrees.

* * *

A bald-headed man cares not for a razor,

Nor a foolish man for an advisor,

And most men dislike a stingy miser.

* * *

A man without a smile on his face

Need not find a space

To open a shop in any place.

* * *

I ate a kiwifruit today

For it couldn’t be resisted as it lay

On the shores of Bay of Biscay.

* * *

A man was found under a Queen’s bed

For three days without bread.

When the King came in, he quickly fled

With only a turban on his head.

No one can sue me for what I’ve just said

For, in a newspaper it was written, and read.

* * *

Money and means are sometime the same

In the tricky ways of life’s game.

If you do the right thing regardless of what came,

It will, in the long run, save your name.

* * *

Nothing happens without a cause

Though you may not know until you pause.

* * *

I drew a line on the desert sand

And dug a hole in the strand

When I returned, there was nothing to find

Apart from the bare land.

* * *

I had a castle built on a rock,

Far away from the pauper’s block.

When a hurricane came, we all ran in shock,

And found that each one had a clock.

* * *

Life hangs by a delicate strand

Though one may live in a style grand.

Happiness is something that one could find

Hidden in the hearts of all mankind.

* * *

The doer and the deed have a common bond

Like water to a pond.

The seeker and the sought are found

To be the same at the end.

* * *

In Shihab’s demise, we mourn the death of a meteorite

Seen in the modern Maldivian skylight.

Sharper than the edge of a sword in a verbal fight

He was never tongue-tied.

* * *

A high-powered survey was conducted with persistence

To find if a hole in the wall was in existence.

And a delayed report came back in one sentence

Confirming a five-foot gap, for the maintenance!

* * *

In a woman of advancing age

Pregnancy is almost an outrage.

* * *

Anorexia nervosa is no Italian name

Of any importance or fame,

For it’s a severe disease that came

To some who play the wrong dieting game.

* * *

An illness itself often brings its own cure

Like a vaccine that gives immunity against germs impure.

The earth carries both fire and water side by side

And life goes on like the ebb and flow of the tide.

* * *

Here lies a man, who loved his wife,

But often used a knife,

And believed that he had a mission in life

In humbly serving a humanity in strife.

***

Milk is often withheld from a child who never cries

And attention to a man who frequently lies

* * *

Simmie, the Cat, on a Sunday noon

Lay warming himself like a half moon.

* * *

A "Parrot Scholar" learns by rote
What's in a book or any quote.

His pen is ever ready to make note
Of any sound that comes out of a teacher's throat.

* * *

The scaratching fowl finds no special appeal

In the diamond that turns up with an onion peal!

* * *

Darkness is dispelled by a light that's bright
But a fire is never put out by a dynamite

Two wrongs never make a right
Thus is hatred countered by love, not fight.

Author’s Annotation: "Hun-toe-toe" in Maldivian idiom of the mid-twentieth century, meant someone, who is very old and wrinkled. "Aikkankurun" means crafting jewellery and "vakkankurun" means crafty thievery. In the last two verses above, Abdul Rasheed seems almost knowingly drafting his own epitaph. As it turned out, I had the last verse of In Harmony with the World inscribed on his headstone. Ibrahim Shihab was our family's long-time neighbour in Malé. He had a gifted tongue and was an eloquent public speaker. Often those in Shihab’s audience were unable to work out whether or not he was meting out praise or being very cynical and satirical. "Shihab" in Arabic literally means meteorite. Of the verse on pregnancy of women of advancing age Abdul Rasheed wrote to me: "Of course, some of my poems, I very discreetly keep to myself. If I don’t, I could lose several patients for a verse like this."