Notes About The Poem
November- 11- 2024
This or That. Vol. 28 .Poetry Contest
Sponsor- Edward Ibeh
~ PLACED FIRST~
In Marked Territory
Homeless I lived,
without even a marked territory
to claim as my own!
How I wished I had access
to a mattress to lay my weary body
or a ceiling under my head!
But I had no place to be in
I have slept in roach infested tunnels,
under bridges and doorways,
walked alone through city streets-
a shadow lost in the absence of light.
In the night I have walked through empty streets
where feral cats and dogs, stalked.
During day, people would walk past me
Looking away as if I were a plague
Amid the crowd, I searched for a kind face
But I could see none.
Sometimes, a hand would occasionally toss
a coin or two into the begging bowl by my side.
In the absence of a marked territory,
I kept walking from place to place,
until my muscles ached and my legs
refused to budge an inch or take another step.
I lived poor, so poor, a lost soul in every way.
When I died, my body was wheeled in a hearse,
with a few following me, with hesitant steps,
more as a custom than a gesture true.
The open gates of the walled cemetery,
allowed a glimpse of the newly dug grave.
In a remote corner it stood,
close to an overgrown hedge,
among many a mound that bore no name on it.
Oh, the indigent and the lonely
are destined to huddle together
in death under the sod
with their identities merged
into a single clan!
My body when swiftly lowered to the pit
and as everyone left to join the rage of life,
I pondered, how on this Earth
the distinctions of rank
extend down unto dust
and follow one like a faithful mongrel
While the rich lie in mausoleums
and in tombs with their names engraved on marble slabs,
think of the many, mere chaff in other’s eyes
who, in life or death, are never fated to be in marked territory!
A torn page from life’s tome!
A story ended and deleted forever!
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