Hse, Hse, Hse! * Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

Hovering over a flashing sign
At the portal to Ahmadi**
Chirped the fluttering sparrow
To the tiny desert flower
That had just offered
Its first golden smile
To the rising sun of spring:

“Eh, ye! What are these guys upto
Erecting these boards all around
That change colours and scenes
Like lights on a festival ground? ”

The flower smiled again,
This time philosophically:
“My flying friend of the sky,
Haven’t you yet heard
HSE, HSE, HSE!

“Having all these years,
Burnt and smoked earth and air,
Men choked of breath,
Have now seen some sense
And know for sure
The dance of death awaits
If they don’t change their traits.”

“Nature, the teacher,
Has taught them the lesson
That they should have known
From day one – but Alas!
They had chosen
The peril of undoing
Their own God-given home.”

“Isnt’t it strange that it took
A hole in the polar skies,
Countless clogged windpipes,
Scarred lungs and hearts,
Scary seas of slick and waste,
Smoky dark afternoons,
Gasping towns asthmatic
For them to understand
The simple truth that the gift of God,
This ‘blue marble’ of the cosmos
Is a treasure to be preserved,
Be whatever the cost? ”

“Listen friend, they have now begun,
Singing a chorus in unison,
“HSE, HSE, HSE! ”
In utter repentance and in hope,
Determined to salvage
The oases senselessly ravaged”.

“Young men and women
Who put up these signs
Have a vision of what their home
Should be like, unlike the ones
Who rushed before them
Defiling nature’s sacred realms
In wanton, hasty sacrilege.”

“HSE, HSE, HSE! ”
Echoed the sparrow,
As it soared in the brilliant sun,
Buoyed by the February wind,
Hope infused by the flower,
On to a eucalyptus branch
That smelt health and well-being.

A bemused alley cat
That sat under the tree
Wondered what all this joy could be.
Her whiskers rayed out
Untold happiness
Deep from a sunny heart
As she mewed with the wind
“HSE, HSE, HSE! ”.

“HSE, HSE! ” sang the kids
Their voice filled with mirth.
“HSE, HSE” sang the winds
As they hissed and kissed the trees.
“HSE, HSE” sang the heart
As it lay on God’s own lap,
Dreaming a world clean and green
Where all His children lived and preened
Letting every creature live
In peace, endowed with healthy breath,
Safe and secure without care
“HSE, HSE, HSE! ”
________________

*HSE = Health, Safety and Environment
* * Ahmadi is an oil town in Kuwait