What Price Progress Poem by Aniruddha Pathak

What price progress

Created when, God meant them to be free—
The earth and water, air and fire and space,
Together that made all things in this place;
Man thought: wow, here's my opportunity.

Limited Earth, and all so precious,
Was fancied first, and came under his hold;
It took time whilst before the rest were sold,
Kindly Nature had made them copious.

Man wondering on ways to make land scarce,
Claimed empty space by building monuments,
Dwellings, to wield it within walls no sparse,
Boundaries, fences, legal impediments!

Of light and fire, he made them both man-made,
And contrived to cater to false demand,
Leaving out sun and air later to fend,
He bent when harder got to go ahead.

And when his greed grew greater than his good,
He plundered Mother Earth— his livelihood,
Spoiled water and air with foul attitude,
Poisoned plant life, green woods, lifeline as food;

And bottled water in order to sell,
What Nature made aplenty he despoiled,
Bothering to bow to no warning bell,
Nor yet from atrocious acts he recoiled.

Such luxury clean air has of late been
That bottled air gets sold—at greedy price,
Class hotels charge fat fees if air were clean,
Sure, man's fate to me seems a loaded dice.

Spoiled has he what God gave in goodly grace,
No wonder his future seems in distress.
_____________________________________________________
Man has managed to ruin all the five elements. God meant them to be free, but man found ways to sell them. What would he exploit next? It might be human creed, character, and virtue, which he no more seems to value!
_____________________________________________________
Happenings | 07.01.16 |