A sojourner’s dream

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In my next lifetime

I will return as Marco Polo

Maybe an Ibn Battuta, an Alberuni –

A voyager with the audacity

To leave his world behind

In search of the cosmos

 

Ah, that fervour

To trail silk routes to forbidden lands

To marvel at the frontier cities

To anticipate a Prester John

To return to Venice years later

And feel it was all a dream

 

Or to sail down the Nile, feel the sirocco

To smell the spice markets of the far east

Or move farther away to the edge of the world

To explore the islands of Wallace’s world

To make a map like Piri Ries,

To write tales of the Dreaming

 

Is there any dearth to the wonders, I wonder

From Prussia to Polynesia

Each tale a tesseract of awe

And I will note them all

In a diary of my peregrinations –

Kanchenjunga to Cook, I will see them all

 

There will be so much to do–

But perhaps, Life will laugh

Saying, ‘You were here last time as well

But you wanted an anchor

Hence this lifetime of sluggishness

This is exactly what you sought -

 

And your name from last time?

Wasn’t that Polo, Maro Polo?


12th May, 2026

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