Why promise, to one’s, estranged faith
A penance, many…many, miles long
Is he, a pilgrim, or a wraith
Who fumbles, for faith, in believers’ throng!

“What I believed, was it, not a sin”
At last Ali, redeemed, his creed
From the ghettos, where screamed, his soul’s chagrin
“I too, belong to, Allah’s breed!”

He clasps, his fist, with Mecca’s sand
As it, slips away, like those, thousand years
Of Chinese prejudice, strand, by strand
Falling apart, rosary of tears!

“Haven’t I fulfilled, my faith’s, last vow”
Muses he, with, wary outrage
To his, half-truth’s tomb, he takes, first bow
Half Haji On Last Pilgrimage!

© 2019 Vikas Chandra