Let us put back
A smile today/morrow:
On the crying face
Of a matted hair street child,
Wandering in unlit alleys
With urban ghosts
A gentle smile back on -
A cracked face of a man
Doddering in the smelly shelter,
Like a maple tree leaf
Soon to be detached
Let us call a brave colleague
Recently downsized, downcast
Sitting alone, in the milling crowds,
On the corner seat, away from your
Triumphant gaze, co-travelling
In the local train, crushed like the
Coolie under heavy weight,
And poor guy,
Seeing with unseeing eyes
The rolling barren landscape
Of pencil-thin towers and crowded malls,
With programmed and
Crazy middle-class shops
Let us
Comfort an inconsolable
Young widow, three kids,
Of a decorated war veteran,
Who returned home
In a black body bag,
To a hero’s welcome
In a silent suburb,
And sobbing home
Let us, above all, resolve:
We should not hurt anybody
With our WORDS
That cause injuries
More fatal
Than enemy guns!
