Thinking Of The Future… Poem by Kishore Asthana

All that is divine in me
Rears back in dismay,
propelled by disgust
At what the human in me
Has done to my world, and to those
Weaker than me
Not only now
But in centuries past

The burning of ‘witches’
Other fruits of the inquisition
The rape of the conquered
Through the ages
Still scars my psyche
The molten lead
In the ear of the outcaste
Who overheard
my sacred chants
And the pain of those
Crucified by the Romans
Burn like stigmata
In my mind

The killing of ‘heathens’
By the self-appointed godly
The vileness rained
on the unconverted
The treatment of slaves
All over the world
The agony of the yoked
Heartlessly unkind
The command of the Mogul
“Make him blind”
Keeps tears running
Down my eyes
In red rivulets

And now
And now
The foul excreta of chemical plants
Pouring down my rivers,
once sacred
Sneers at my thirst
For spiritual purity
The waste of those
With plenty to waste
The haste to have all
Is changing my earth
To an arid brown ball
And I sit appalled
Keening my helpless dismay
To my generations to come


Let them all know
In their deformed limbs
The hypocrisy of their forebears
Who talked and talked
Of doing good
These could-have-been-redeemers
Who never understood
That words mean nothing
That action is all
Alas
By then
Even this would be useless
Like their weakened eyes
In the pervading haze

But that is all I have for now
Just more words
That is all