The land among the rocks
Stunning rice fields surrounds
The wind that whistles through the native trees
The smell of cardamom and the old rubber trees.
The natural crevice in the rock
The bubbling pond that is for child play
The dolls pool we called it
The only dampness thirty inches shallow.
But the rest of the land was dry
The wells couldn’t be dug
The rocks hid the water beneath
In a selfish act of love.
He planned to sell the land,
This inheritance from the parents,
The one that they toiled to plant on,
The rubber, the pepper and the farm they started.
An academic he was, he went around with his prodigies
Showing his land of heritage
The one he couldn’t make a living out of
But the one he felt the nature expressed her way.
He told the prodigies that he would sell it off
The headache of having a beautiful land that yields no crops
Lends no springs to grow the fruits of harvest
This land has gained him naught.
But one prodigy noticed
A river flowing in the border
And showed his host and teacher
With delight and laughter.
‘’I have never seen this river’’, he said
‘’How can this be?’’
‘’It does not belong to my land’’
‘’ I don’t think, it can’t be’’.
Amused by the discovery, one that he never thought existed
They walked to the boundary to the west
To notice another pleasant alteration; a tiny tributary
Now flowing through the middle of the land.
In amazement he looked to see how this could be
As they discovered an abandoned powerhouse
And then the lush green pathway across the field to his inheritance
How is it that he never knew what he had?
Is it that he had overlooked its treasure?
The water and the changing biome?
Or is it that the land has now started to breathe finally
In fear of exchange for money to a stranger?
Has it finally heard his complaint
The reasons for his abandoning?
Or did he neglect this rocky eco-system
Because he always had it and never worked hard to inherit it?
The land is never the same now
And he has second thoughts
He might as well keep it and make it his own
Now that there is a river in the middle of the green.
The prodigies have helped him to see
The value of his own inheritance maybe
The one he already owns and has, and need not prove to be
Besides, how can one sell a river to a stranger?
Maybe he will think again, what this all means
And plan a different plan to plant
The native trees and rubber leaves
And reconstruct the power plant.