The Wise Man of Semabok, Part 1

THE WISE MAN OF SEMABOK
by Azly Rahman

rhymes for modern times,
written in seven days
... in seven different locations
in about seven thousand words

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I

There was a boy,
Johan as he was called,
Who lived in the toughest time of all,
In which there was too much to learn,
in not so much time at all.

It was the time of fast computers,
And supernovas and quasars and environmental
litters,
And of course in school, a lot to be learned,
Poor Johan, to have the mind of a genius,
was all he has always yearned.

In school there were Physics and Chemistry,
And History and Biology,
Not to mention all the languages
and all the readings and the homework
given by his teachers.
Oh, how Johan and all those very ambitious
Yearn to find the one best method which
will make them geniuses.

It was his eleventh year of schooling,
A Fourth Former like him doesn’t have much time
for doodlings,
For it was the year of high hopes,
Another year then - there would be a major exam
for Johan to grope.

Thus the journey began for his intensive studying,
Of constant memorizing and reading and calculating,
For Johan wants to do the best in every test,
So as to prove to himself, his parents and the rest,
That he indeed can be the brightest and the best.

Months passed by and the poor boy began
to feel the pinch,
As if he’s crawling every inch,
To get the facts he learned imprinted deep within,
So that he could perform the best - day out, day in.
When the going gets tough, as they say,
The tough gets going, come what may.
But life, like Johan, like that of the rest of us,
Is filled with ups and downs - a roller coaster such as,
And poor Johan, like a lark he rises early morning,
And like a nightingale he retires beyond
midnight calling,
Reading and writing, thinking and calculating.