THE ROPE WALKER
Explore Beautiful Pakistan
A ROPE, STURDY, STRONG, AND TIGHT
TIED TO TWO STREEL POLES, A LIFETIME ACROSS
The narrowest bridge – one, that the Islamic Faith
Visualizes all souls crossing it.
My walkway!
Indeed, my walkway in my life is this rope
Sturdy, strong, tight, and taut, connecting
Two extremities, two moments in the flow of time
My birth and my death – the void in between
This rope-bridge overspreads …a long-distance, indeed.
Bare-foot I am and I stand sturdily on the rope
One foot ahead … and one foot behind
I hold the rope in the crook of my big toe
Look behind to see how much distance is covered
Then look ahead to envision how far I’ve to go
Maybe, I have covered one-half of the distance.
Looks like it, I tell myself, but I’m not sure.
But an innocent babe, I was when I started doing it
Learned to do it the hardest way
falling often
hurting myself.
Why didn’t I learn to walk on the ground?
The safe and solid, plain earth was there …and yet
With a hateful glance at it, I had said, NO!
Nothing doing! O my elders, I shall walk on a rope
I shall do something that no one has done before.
Why did I choose rope walking? I ask myself
I do not know, I tell myself, but now it is too late –
Too far gone on my journey, if I turn back
And begin anew
I will walk the rest of the distance, high up, on the rope.
You are t he actor on the stage, not one of the audience
Finally, I hear my inner self tell me.
Your preordained faith it is. You either do it – or die.
You cannot walk on the earth like ordinary mortals.
A special breed you are! Bravo!
How much distance is left? I again ask myself.
