Journey By Bus Poem by Tan Pratonix

The Point Pedro bus is not for us,
It suits a hippopotamus.
The Mannar bus is slow and meant
For an ox or elephant.

I see the cars go whizzing by,
Toyota, Honda and Hyundai.
I too would have gone by car,
But the road was bad, and far

Too much of a risk to take,
With punctured tyre or with brake
Failing at a crucial hour -
Why should my private trip turn sour?

So shrewd and prudent I would be
And take the public S.L.T.B.
This Jaffna bus, it roars along
The driver crazily blows his horn;

It's an Express bus with a shake and rattle
Suitable, perhaps, for driving cattle,
But oh, the way it races ahead!
The driver is ‘driven' (perhaps he is ‘led'?)
By a single thought: 'I must reach in time
Trin-co-mal-ee by a quarter to nine! '

And so he rushes past cars and buses
And ramshackle lorries crawling slow
On a two-lane highway being widened to four.
My body is shaken as vehicles are overtaken
By this speeding bus with its engine-roar,
And air-horn scream, and shake & rattle;
This Jaffna bus is like a tank in battle -

Rushing and crushing, lapping the miles,
We arrive in Trincomalee full of smiles.
The time, I see, is 10 to 9;
My body is sore, my spirit is fine!


*****

NOTE:
Written 2011. Scene: Northern Province, Sri Lanka.
S.L.T.B.= Sri Lanka Transport Board
Point Pedro, Mannar, Jaffna are all towns/cities in Northern Province, Sri Lanka.
Trincomalee is in Eastern Province, SL.
Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are the types of foreign cars seen in this country.

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#journey #bus #travel #road #highway #srilanka