Where Do I Swim? Poem by cp Aboobacker

In this drought-ridden pond
Or in a horrific ocean
Or in the dead of the sea
Salty and hard with no dreams or romance?

Where do I sing?
In this orchard full of dry plants
With no trees flowering
Among the ducks with mud on their beaks
Dirty and ugly with hoarse noises?

I know my men fight
And women stand by to take the fields;
I know my children are armed
In their hearts with love and warmth
So that man might not again succumb to war.

I love the sun and the night
I love the wilderness and the battlefield
I love to love and fight the fight
I don't lament the loss of dime or dame
So that I never hate myself or my people.

I belong to my reeds, I sing to myself
Of the reeds from whence I come
I recite rhymes of childhood days
When my father went to fight
To tear the fetters from his neighbor.