How Blessed Are We! Poem by Venkateswaran Krishnan Sreenivasan

How Blessed Are We!



How blessed are we on the face of this earth?
For living in mirth, there is no dearth
Of a peaceful hearth and attributes of health
Love, work, food and wealth

Have we given a moment’s thought
To our wretched brethren’s lot
No home, no food and subject to every rot
Efforts to bring them succor come to naught

Look at the shriveled faces below
Starved and naked sans human glow
Seized with sickness from heat and cold
Could you be composed when you behold.

Look at the scum of the earth below
Our children’s faces starved and sad
Charming faces shorn of their glow
These ghastly sights do make us mad

With little to eat but the waste from the street
Thrown by the elite after a sumptuous feast
It is but meet that we remain discreet
And offer our surfeit to the poor as treat

Their thatched up home, many have none
Is prone to the fury of wind and sun
Their precincts reek of a pervasive scent
Not of blossoms but human excrement

They were not taught, nor sent to learn
At school; driven to the fields to toil and earn
For a living, they have no hope, desire or sorrow
As they cherish no thoughts of tomorrow

No water to sip, or pure air to breathe
No food to eat, or a place to excrete
Our lowly brethren do seethe
In agony and anguish clenching their teeth


Are we secure in our cloistered homes
Unconcerned about the struggling worms
How long will our comforts last
When millions around are doomed to fast

The path to the grave is with roses strewn
For the blessed few, for many it is thrown
With pebbles and thorns through life,
Partake in their plight and strife

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