I HAVE A DREAM

I HAVE A DREAM 

(inspired from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I HAVE A DREAM" speech)

-Shraddha Acharya

That mild breeze from Himalayas nudging my skin,

Tapping and slapping my window pane turn-in

What a perfect set-up to my dream!

Dream? Not exactly a dream but something that I schemed.

Now that I’ve schemed and seamed that whole theme,

No longer it remains just a thought in sleep but rather a pre-lucid dream

A dream, so deliberately dreamt,

Often attempt, contempt and re-attempt.

I have a dream and it doesn’t talk about Emancipations and the Proclamations,

Neither speaks about any abolition, assumptions nor my nation’s constitution

I cannot go that route like Dr. Martin but I can dream like him,

Dream for my country, dream for satiety, progress and vim.

I have a dream of a country where each child shall get the same quality of education,

Where no child will be cursed to live a life of deprivation

I dream that health of every people will be towards betterment,

Where, promotion and protection will be prioritized above cure and treatment.

I have a dream that my country’s people will not be called citizens but family members,

To whom scarce roads and steep hills will no longer remain barriers

Where, our vocal cords and letters shall not only be the means to communicate,

Where, every huts in Terai shall skype and e-mail any of their Mountain’s mates.

I dream of a country where lightening a bulb will not limit to load shedding schedules,

Where, a country entitled rich in water resources will justify itself with filled taps and pools

Where, brain drain will no longer be our problem,

But of those nations whose youths shall aspire our nation as their fortune centrum.

I dream of a country where a marginalized Chepang shall carry country’s highest administrative task,

Where, there shall be no beggar and poor in streets and corners to ask

Where, farmers will not commit suicide but rather profitably produce,

Where, both a cobbler and a shoe company owner shall equally be a duce.

I dream of a country where the leaders will fight for the best of the country and not to their own best,

Where, federalism will not mean anything like democratic feudalism to the underprivileged and rest

Where, people will not just unite for proving Buddha’s birthplace,

But shall unite to preserve his preaching from being displaced.

I have a dream of a time when Nepalese rupee shall devaluate the pound,

When my Nepali Dhaka topi shall oust those famous Stetson cowboy hats around

When world’s largest tea market wouldn’t taste China but my green Illam,

When, lovers wouldn’t share a rose but my rhododendron for their Valentine’s program.

I have a dream, in an inclusive equitable nation, allow inequality to reside,

Not inequality between my people but among their contributions

Let one contribute to mankind and another to technology and let this inequality of inputs confide,

And from every mountainside let the freedom ring, let the serenity ring, let the nation ring.

P.S. A part of last verse in this poem (ones in italics) are the same last lines spoken by Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.