Troublesome

Submitted By: John "The Beloved" Ajewole

The sky is not always so calm,
Showing its bright face - light blue.
Many times come the dark clouds
To spoil its looks, and later the rain
Falls and finally the sun shines again.

So goes the case even here on planet earth,
With you and me, folks, friends and foes combined.
When ‘simple’ becomes a burden,
And then you see a dark and ugly face,
A sudden fall from grace to disgrace.

When instead of compliments come blame,
and evil is repaid for every little good,
The word of encouragement faraway,
When your kindness is spoken of as ill,
When friends and foes are after you for a kill.

When progress seems to have come to a halt,
At the junction of life, when the highway
Becomes a roundabout - a journey into forever,
When ridicule and accusations are daily arrows,
And deeper and deeper in troubles you wallow.

At such times come the thought to give up
‘Let it go’, ‘Forget it’, ‘surrender in defeat’
‘An urge to retreat into the farthest confines,
Away from every who, what, where or when,
An unfortunate lion, lying hopelessly in its den.

Little by little, the thoughts begin to eat you up,
First you bloat and then stink in every inch.
Listen to what I say, shake yourself,
Get up and bring your spirit back to life.
Be quick else you’ll be gone in your strife.

There are two sides to every coin.
He who has not tasted bitter cannot
Talk about sweet and remember that for every up,
There’s a down and life is not a matter of ‘we’.
You can either drink or spill your cup of tea.

Don’t allow defeat or discouragement,
Anger, failure, any weakness of any sort.
Nothing is permanent, even change.
Winners are always chosen at the end of the race
You won’t get a credit if you stop at first base.

Originally Published: March 29, 2000