Dr Fixit (4441 - 4450)

 

4441

in the dawn and it did zigzag and rumble

on the rails across the vast jungle

and various human hamlets which at the fringes

we witnessed disturbing sights – long ranges

of timbers were stacked by the sides of the tracks

and near them, tractors and trucks were parked –

I looked at Crookedmouthit and he looked at me,

on our return with our feet we would stray

through the adjoining jungle as we greatly feared

greater havoc had been wreaked as humans spared,

4442

it seemed now, nothing felling further the trees

to grease their lavish lifestyles with sprees).

Across more hamlets, the train rumbled past

and the barren land and stunted trees left aghast

my aide and he remembered every detail of my play

(every nasty sight he witnessed today;

things he thought were figments of my imagination)

and so with righteous indignation

he glared and said: ‘So events in “Dr Fixit”

are true. Human intellects just miss it

 

4443

‘that the trees like a woman’s hair isn’t just beauty

but protection for the head and a must duty

it should be for them to let the trees thrive

alongside their castles. It’d save them strife.’

‘You might as well tell them in your work

and see if they would listen.’ I did block

further chats on keeping the globe green

with my response and at every other thing

we let our eyes browse and as we passed

a signboard, my aide asked: ‘What’s that?’

 

4444

‘Oh, it’s humans on the field of a school

playing football.’ ‘Yeah. But if I won’t like a mule

sound, I mean the words on the board.’ The impression

my friend corrected. The expression

on the post was, ‘MISSION SCHOOL’. I read aloud

to him in English and he copied with a shout.

Seeing the excitement, I said: ‘You want to learn

the English Language? Well, I would earn

a greater percentage from your pay packet

by the time we’re done,’ I teased. ‘Once the target

4445

‘I hit,’ Crookedmouthit replied, ‘take everything.

But spare me no tricks in mastering

the language. I’d jump out of space if in English

I could dribble words like I do in Antish.’

From then on, we delved into the nitty-gritty

of the language, the profound and the petty.

‘What is “mission” and what is “school”?’ my aide asked.

I read every word and took time in the task

of putting across the explanation in mother tongue.

I strove to see my friend got no meaning wrong.

 

4446

‘A strange set of humans came from overseas

and brought their beliefs here to those they did oversee.

They were known as missionaries and the school

was the place they taught those they did rule

or rather, their counterparts in government

did rule.’ Chaos was in the firmament.

The train stopped and we alighted at

the terminal. ‘Confusion Breaks Bones,’ it was tagged.

As we walked a short distance and under

a mango tree, my friend drew me aside and did utter:

 

4447

‘My sister is a nun who works with a mission.

Her sole aim is to help the soldier ant’s vision

of a well-rounded world where the spiritual

must sit side by side with the physical.

My sister has nothing to do with those

who govern our clans.’ ‘No, she does,’

I said. ‘Good citizens don’t drop from the skies.

Someone must mould them and then they’re enticed

by government to work as ambassadors, spies

or agents who’d help propagate their truths and lies.

4448

‘The mission here worked with the government

and this was their school.’ My statement

made my friend nod with contemplation.

It was a promising start to his education.

We walked on. From an alley we hit

the highway, the sky growled and raindrops beat

down on everything below. We rushed

into the veranda of a shop and I was nudged

by my friend. He asked: ‘The sign at the train stop,

what was it?’ I thought deep and did my eyes drop

 

4449

as the exact words I tried to remember.

‘Confusion Breaks Bones Terminus,’ I did utter.

My friend copied me and I gave the explanation:

‘Both for the colonizers and their language was the notion

behind the phrase targeted at. What was

preached isn’t what they now practise for a pause

they put into what they taught others to imbibe

and a clause here and there to what once they did recite

is removed. Like termites to soldier ants would go,

the humans overseas did come to show

 

4450

‘their civilized ways to the humans here.

The termites arrived in droves and preached everywhere

that wrong is taking to the mouth the flesh

but great food is wood, dead or fresh.

And so the throngs of soldier ants grab the wood

and made a meal of it in every neighbourhood.

When depleted, they saw all in sight were mushrooms.

In the sun, these quickly dry up and in deep gloom

everyone wallows as the sun scalds every head.

The soldier ants blame the termites, the termites state