Making A Rare Move Up On This Mountaintop Poem by Sarah Mkhonza

In a rare move I am standing in a cave
Up on the mountains of my little country.
I see the river valleys and the forests
All green and the river turns like a brown
Thread way out there towards the confluence
Of another one. Homesteads like little
Mushrooms sit down there in the valley
As if painted on the earth by a hand
Bigger than the paint brush of an artist.

They look at the sky and it looks down
On them. In a rare glance I see the road
Also brown but climbing up in directions
Not of the river for it traces its way
On altitudes lower that go down. A bus blue
And striped weaves its way up along
The road loaded and moving like a large
Toy in child's play way down there.

It is a rare move to look down on life
And feel you can handle it in your hand
For the mountains give you a view only
The ones who dare to take a rare step
Up on their mountaintops of everyday
Challenges get to see.

To wake up and go on the same path to the
Same well to get water in the same container
Kills the love of existence in a poor soul
For you see the same stone and the same
Clump of grass and start to believe the
World is standing still yet it moving in
Those rare moves we do not feel and only
Know through the change of the seasons.

Make a rare move in your world and talk
To the seasons and tell them to turn the
Sky bluer for you for your everyday blue
Fails to help you make your rare moves
On this chess board of black and white
Which for you has failed to change.


Only the champions rare will have a story
To tell about the world if we all shuffle
And just push the king and queen in any
Direction for wins are made by that one rare
Move up on the mountaintop on this chess board.

For it is here that you see all the cans
And cants of life, for life lies lower
Than you and you emerge a doer who can
Choose to see and make something of the views
Or just stand and make no rare move as
You walk down dejectedly to the bottom
For they do say we are all equal at the
Bottom of the hill.

Don't fear the fall for if you look down
You will get dizzy and lose sight of the
Scenes as the acts roll on and the action
Moves on for these moves rare were meant
To be made at levels higher than normal
For it is here that the eagle perches its
Nest.