How can I keep still,
Listening to the news?
How can I be immune,
Knowing about the dead and the injured?

 

I see pulpy bodies strewn in blood,
Quivering, lingering –
To be wiped from the face of the earth.
I see the rubble of the towns out there.

 

Look at the amount of affliction
That the old and young are bearing!
Missiles lodge in their homes.
Starvation has made them sick.
They suffer the torture through no fault of theirs!

 

Though I’m not at those horrific spots,
From time to time –
The silence of my isolation,
Drags me down to the war-zones.
How can I keep still?

 

This terrible world –
Is too afraid to embrace peace.
This terrible world with its greed –
Has brought pain and hunger.
I dread how it came into being.

 

How can I keep still,
Listening to the news?
How can I be immune,
Knowing about the dead and the injured?

 

I see pulpy bodies strewn in blood,
Quivering, lingering –
To be wiped from the face of the earth.
I see the rubble of the towns out there.

 

Dubai
2015

                          

Geeta Chhabra

 

From the book: Smash My Glass by Geeta Chhabra.

 

This book is available on:
https://www.amazon.in/Smash-My-Glass-Geeta-Chhabra/dp/8182535794
https://www.amazon.com/Smash-My-Glass-Geeta-Chhabra/dp/8182535794
https://www.cyberwit.net/publications/838