It was a sunny afternoon,
No sign of wind or rains,
I was leaving after a Math class,
My mind was full of lines and planes.
My royal vehicle for today
Was a humble two-wheeled bicycle,
The poor thing’s seat was 2 years old,
It made my bottom tickle.
But now as I left the class building,
And mounted my mode of transport,
The skies began to darken;
It seemed the Gods had something to sort.
Reading the ominous signs,
And hoisting up my pack,
I started pedaling vigorously,
Even as stray drops began to fall on my back.
The drizzle turned into downpour
Not at all showing any mercy,
I cycled on, getting wetter and wetter,
For there was no jacket with me.
Around half an hour from home,
I felt something give way,
So, with an irritated moan,
I got down to see what had gone astray.
One of the tires was at fault,
Once it had been round and fat,
But this time it betrayed its sodden master,
And had now become quite flat.
I cursed in anger and irritation,
But that did next to nothing,
The punctured tire was an indication,
That I had to go home walking.
Walking was rather fun for me,
Actually, a marvelous exercise,
But, oh, doing it was next to hell —
In a precipitation of such size.
Not only was my body getting wet,
As from the rain I fled,
But also my spirit’s color inside,
Was turning from yellow to red.
It seemed that Fate himself today,
Was, with me displeased,
For barely five long minutes later,
Into another calamity I was seized.
Right in front of my very own eyes
An accident then happened,
A bus stopped unintentionally in the middle of the road,
Exactly on the edge of the bend.
Now other pressing matters
Presented themselves first,
An innocent scooter cruising along
Crashed into the bus headfirst.
I hoped that that was all for now,
And I could move along quickly,
But, “No,” Fate seemed to say,
“You won’t get away so easy!”
A navy-green open air jeep
Behind the unlucky bike
Ploughed straight into the bus’s façade,
Changing forever my ebbing psyche.
This accident of colossal magnitude
Induced a great traffic jam,
From the speed of an enthusiastic turtle,
I now moved like a lazy ram.
I had to stall for minutes on end,
Receiving glares from passers-by,
Who quickly passed me with umbrellas and raincoats;
In my wet state, my envy was on high.
A patch of road that I covered usually
In around 10 minutes in normal conditions ,
Now gave me 45 soaked minutes,
Of honks and noxious emissions.
At long last I escaped that bane
Of Modern western technology,
And, leaving behind a tangled mess of cars,
I was finally set free.
I hoped, with my fingers crossed,
That my walking odyssey was about to end,
But no, sadly, it was not to be –
For it was against Fate I had myself to defend.
With a mere 20 metres to traverse,
My forlorn cycle once more refused to budge,
As, even with one tire gone flat out,
It became stuck in the muddy sludge.
Now my anger took full control,
Swearing, I kicked the cycle and left it there,
And sprinted on regardless of my drenched state,
Looking forward to peace and calmness rare.
It was six o’clock when I reached –
The class had ended by four,
And, not caring to narrate my story,
I rested my body sore.
After a very good rest then,
I woke up fully renewed,
To find my whole family,
Watching some soap show feud.
I found out after some inquiry,
That the clouds had stopped their crying din,
In fact it seemed that the downpour ceased
The moment I stepped within.
Now this, for me, was a solid fact,
That Fate in all his force,
Had focused verily on me
The moment I began my homeward course.
Anyway, after waking up sniffing from a cold,
I unpacked the bag I had taken to class,
And, rummaging inside with some nonchalance,
Found a jacket, an umbrella, and a bus pass.
… Oh life, so cruel.