To An Impatient Young Friend Poem by Syed Ahmed Shah

Spring oozed from ever branch
Leaves quivered to the jingle of the wind

The straight stalk made it an animal
Dwarfing all others despite its youth

Its pride held till the night of the storm

Life rained from the heart of the morning
On veins of dignity rooted to the earth

But wept on the body of the uprooted pride
That lay on the grass humbled, sans life

The tender roots broken free now talked
Among themselves with anger and spite

We needed time to grow further in
But it would not listen to our pleas

It only wanted to grow tall,
Because it thought ‘height is all'

It grew and grew before its time
So before it time, it had to fall…

.....Syed Ahmed Shah, Bokultol, Guwahati.