the pursuit of truth

far roamed the wanderer

asking questions from others to find answers in self

for their sorrow was his own;

just as their happiness was his.

he found:

mountains, beaches & deserts.

rats, cats & leopards.

students, traitors & teachers

murderers, liars & preachers.

he found a little of himself in all;

and yet all were a thing apart.

he found truth in these:

his lover’s eyes; his mother’s concern,

his sister’s wisdom, his father’s words,

his brother’s abuses, his friend’s laughter,

in a girl’s vulnerability & questions by the bar: that spoke truth once and only that one time;

in the waves that carried away a woman’s unkept promise made to them; yes, those words did not see the light of day; but they were her truth, her wish, her untaken road.

in the laughter of all those he made to laugh; the before and after may or may not be the truth, but the laughter was.

in the songs his mother taught him; sang to him to make him sleep when he was a child; consisting of love, honesty, wisdom & hope; a world that she wanted him to believe existed.

in his father’s words: the bitter, honest truth; closest to the reality; further from the utopia that his father kept fighting for. the truth that can bring down governments and people; entire nations and states. the only truth the society should know.

in his sister’s optimism: her try is fair, just like her heart. her attempt deserves applaud, her knowledge admiration.

in his lover’s eyes; where he finds truth but also loses self; where he sees his family; where he sees his kids; where he finds a home. love; love is the closest to the truth he could get.

the journey of moulding self is his truth; working hard, learning disciplines, listening to all but doing by his right; taking betrayals & choosing silence, learning to be indifferent to those that don’t matter; for his enemies shall be his equal, that is where he will expend his energy. that is where his mind & attention is required. that is when his abuses shall be hurled; his fist shall be raised; blood shall be drawn; breathe shall be stopped. chants shall be chanted. justice shall be done. to expose the old, white bearded bespectacled, two faced liar. for the truth.

in gossip he found everything but the truth; in people’s opinion and stories he found everything but the truth; in their anger he found everything but the truth; in the silences also he found everything: varying from guilt, regret, ego, insecurities, vulnerability, hurt & arrogance; but not the truth.

in the celebrations he found feigning; in the alcohol he found pain, in the drugs he found depression, in the cigarettes he found stress; but never the truth.

in solitude he found lack of ears; in the wrong company he found lack of deserving ears. in the society, he found obsequiousness, in the rich he found lies that cover their bodies but expose their rotten souls; in the poor he found the bitter truth that was not enough to cover their bodies or hide their hunger.

in the oppressed’s tears he found the truth; the truth that brings shame to the society as a whole. their tears his own. in them, he found a reason above his’. a truth that makes his truth small, minuscule, almost non-existential to a point where he would stop his search, to resolve theirs’.

in his today he finds opportunity to grow; in his past he finds the reality to learn; but in his future he finds the truth that will set him free.