A story about two "John"s

A story about two John`s, I read
(In a book, a wise man written)

two men
oceans apart
But their paths crossed many a times
Sometimes by circumstance
Sometimes by choice
Sometimes by fate

With time
Friends ,they became

The first John,
left the shores of his motherland.
On a sailing ship
He travelled many seas
In a far away island
In an alien land
he felt at home
He found his peace
He talked, ate
and at times thought
like these strange people
of Sinhalay

Then there was the other
From the village of Ihagama
A buddhist priest
Who walked in and out of the
saffron robes
Many times
As destiny demanded
A priest turned
Freedom fighter
Fought a war
knowing that he was
on the loosing side
A revolution of spirit and need
But no hope

Current Ihagama Temple. The old one has been about 300yards away.

These two legacies
(Much similar yet worlds apart)
Like all legacies before them
And all since,
eventually
had to end

The priest
Caught by the soldiers
with brass buttoned uniforms
Tried and convicted
by the white men and their dark justice
Banished to a far away land
Forced to take the name
" John"
Leaving footprints
on another man`s sand
mind ignoring the great sea in between
taking a stroll in familiar shores .
In saffron robes
He died
(in mauratius)

As for the other John
(Known later by his father`s name-D`oyle )

Sinhalay.... he never left

John d'oyle's tomb in Garison Cemetry /Kandy