If Only... Poem by Basanta Lohani

You and I could look ugly
Because of impulses
That freely visit our mind.

But the inner mind is:
Innocent
As a new born baby,
Sweet and holy
As the fragrance of a jasmine just unfolding,
Glowing
As a new dawn's sun,
Infinite
As time with neither beginning nor end,
Blissful
As Buddha's Nirvana.

You have that mind too,
Exactly like mine.

But the outer mind is different
As different as the six billions
Living in today's world.

Visitors we are
In this diverse shore,
Opportunities twist and turn here
Like the Minotaur's labyrinth,
Every society is
Conditioned like a tamed river.

But Buddha opened the inner mind,
So did Christ and Mohammed.

If this inner mind could just flash
In our awareness,
Differences will disappear.

And this world could be as different
As the River Bagmati at her Bagdwar source
Than under the busy Thapathali Bridge.