Teesta Review: A Journal of Poetry, Volume 5, Number 1. May 2022. ISSN: 2581-7094
A
Poetic Binary
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Image courtesy: theparliamentmagazine.eu |
1.
Verdict
“Ah I see,” said a little chicken
to a swine,
“Your virus seems more
virulent than mine;
It is spreading fast, it
is spreading afar,
Man
is trying to fight on a footing of war.”
“Oh, my dear,” replied the
swine to the chicken
“For sure, with my flu
they are badly stricken;
But I shudder at the way
they slaughtered my kin,
May
the Lord forgive them for their dreadful sin.”
“I join in your prayer, my
brother dear,
Our fate was the same; we
still live in fear;
Mother Earth is stifled under
trashy piles,
Slow
death effaces her angelic smiles.”
“You are so right,” sobbed
the poor swine.
Just then Gauri the cow
began to whine:
“My cousin to her final
rest they laid,
On
plastic she gagged is what they said.”
A flock from distant lands
honked loud now
“We travel across
continents, do ask us how
Intensely we mourn – fish
and birds die on shores
While
oil-spills end lives deep on ocean floors.”
“Will they never learn?”
wept a wise owl,
“Forests are fast
disappearing,” continued he with a scowl;
“They hold meaningless
talks about pollution
Which
always end with no imminent solution.”
“While our friends in
death’s jaws were thrown
A new deadly virus seems
to have been lab-grown
Mankind has made our
planet’s future dismal
Plunking
us all into anguish abysmal!”
The proud rooster now
cocked a snook,
Strutting out of his harem-like
nook.
“Bah! The so-called most
intelligent race!
I
believe to creation they are a total disgrace!”
2.
While We Still Can
Butchery, avarice, selfishness
– base instincts
Of the self-proclaimed
lord of the universe…
Master of the art of
filtering out
Sandpaper
truths that abrade puny, brittle egos!
Demigods? Lords of all we survey? No!
Marauders swooping in with endless rapacity,
Egoistic need, greed and the
myth of supremacy!
Alas!
The downright lunacy of the human race!
The
blue dot – our only home in the universe
Raped,
ravaged, denuded, despoiled, disfigured…
Grieves
with those we treat as underdogs
Humans
though are selectively deaf and blind.
Our ‘humaneness’ — does it not teach kindness?
The human condition is steered
by a ‘blind spot’
Our values are totally at
odds with actions
That
smother this “lonely speck of light.”
‘Exceptional’ we bound undismayed up the rungs
Of
exploitation and extradition… development
we say.
How
do other species matter? We the ‘special ones’
Have brought us to the edge of extinction.
We
can and must help restore this vanishing planet.
Begin
to backtrack. Unite to correct our course.
Help
diffuse volatile patterns of destruction
Created and re-created through centuries of abuse.