DR FIXIT (4261 - 4270)

 

4261

‘All right,’ the praying mantis said, nodding for long,

‘your haughtiness this fight would just prolong.

You think the superficial wisdom from tortoise

is all you need in life? Well and fine,’ he did hiss.

‘You’ve raised the tempo of your macabre song.

We’d dance but we’d soon see who would run.’

‘Jah!’ I say and move forward but he flies off.

I say: ‘Why don’t you wait and let’s see who’s tough?’

4262

SCENE TWO: I’m lazing on the beach, having picnic.

I look sideways with my coloured glasses and pick

the svelte figure of my wife strut towards me;

then she leaps suddenly and flies towards me.

The flying embrace I expect becomes a choking grasp

of scrawny fingers around my neck; I gasp.

The eyes staring at my bulging eyes are those

of Mendit One; with rage my hands form fists and blows

I freely rain on the idiot; no one asks the spook

to vanish or a second time he’d die, it does look.

 

4263

I jump up on my bed and see no one around me.

I’m breathing hard and the experience isn’t funny.

I remember I was having a siesta as my wife

had gone to the kitchen to help with the ladle or knife.

Well, I laugh. So spooks too know how to be afraid?

He should’ve waited for me to blow him till he was dead.

But I’m also thinking why would the ghost

of a man long dead come back me to accost?

But do dead people really turn to spooks?

Is this dream a bait I’m meant to be hooked

 

4264

to a wrong belief system? I brush the thought

aside and take the experience to be nought

more than a bad dream. I walk to the window

to gaze outside and I’m seeing a long throw

of the hose over the far wall of The Academy

as the firefighters create a firefighting scenery

but then I’m seeing a strip of smoke rise up

and the firefighters fiddle with a hydrant; some crawl up

and over the wall to do, I guess,

a fire-quenching exercise but a text

4265

from Tracit slips into my phone – she does this

when she doesn’t want to rattle others while in their midst

with a bad report; I pick the phone on the centrepiece,

read the text, standing by the window with no bliss.

Who would want to burn down The Academy

donated to us by our folks because of our bravery?

In that lousy dream, Mendit One’s spook

tried to choke me to death but a crook

in reality had lit up some tinder

and dropped or thrown it into the tower

 

4266

but an alert sentry had rushed up

and thrown it out; then, there was a call-up

to the firefighters who go over to quench it

as with enough liquid they would drench it.

My mind straightaway goes to the praying mantis

and with his fight, he’s throwing up very bad antics.

So he wanted to continue from where stopped

Mendit One? I hope he studies how he flopped

woefully and his remains are with Forensics –

we’d soon snuff out any foolhardy antics!

 

4267

Or could Mendit One truly rise up from his grave

and the praying mantis ignorantly did rave?

Reason they warn people not to stupidly

say things with their mouths as someone wickedly

jumps in to carry out the empty threats

but the law comes after you as it dreads

and suspects you as the culprit and though

you’d deny it, you’d be dragged for a trial show

before the judge and care not taken, you’d end up

in jail, punished, for with your tongue you’d messed up.

4268

Yes, in my mind praying mantis is key suspect;

Mendit One is dead and an utter reject.

Well, what happened had happened and the text

about it I’ve read so I get round to inspect

if there is any damage and how serious also

and what remedy is needed so I know

which unit or units should get into the scene

and do it but the attitude henceforth in

The Academy would be one of alertness –

it’s clear there’s envy and mischievousness

 

4269

in some quarters as it seems some fellows

aren’t fine with our rising profile and so blows,

if given the chance, they’d rain on anything

and the troops for our ever upward swing.

From the reception I stride towards the main gate,

open it and walk round to stand and stare

at the firefighters battling a raging inferno;

the tinder had been thrown into dry leaves of a willow

and a flame burst and engulfs the sticks and logs

lying around – escaping are some frogs.

 

4270

So our easy way of life for just a month

someone didn’t like? This act is an affront.

I bring out my phone and dial security

that the internal and external guards resume fully,

that is, in shifts and without questions, immediately

to stem any bugger’s further impunity;

then I dial Information Unit the message

to all to pass round: we won’t wait to be enraged;

anything suspicious, a battle should be staged.

Like at the front when we humans engaged,