What Shall I Offer Poem by Mohabeer Beeharry

When the canal dries
The ground hardens
And the greenery around shrivels and turns yellow
And dies.
But which one is more important,
Tell me oh wise man
Tell me
Which one is more important?
The canal or the water?
When my heart is dry
And no songs of love rise
No joy
And no prayer for this sad humanity
Swallowed by illusions and ignorance
Drowned in pride, greed and inhumanity
Painting pictures of tender life
In flood of morbid red
What shall I offer them?
Tell me what shall I offer them?
What shall I offer the dismembered and dying baby?
What comfort shall I give the distraught mother?
How shall I efface the spots
Of blood from the face of this mother
From whose bosom
We have drunk clean and undiluted milk?
I need the canal and I need the water.
I need the heart and I need the love and the understanding
For they are the only sustaining panacea
In this darkening place.