Big Brother is fiddling
While Delhi burns
He’s engaged in another
Of his tragicomic turns
The unspeakable Little Bro is
Not at home
That overgrown brat
Is indulging somewhere in
Some maun vrat
And Little Bro’s son
What games does he play?
It’s certainly not cricket
To be playing today
When the degree of separation
Is certainly not six
My brother, his father
Add yours to the mix:
People are dropping dead
Like flies: that’s callous
But true
What can one do
What can one do
But weep without hope
At the scale of a tragedy
With which the mind cannot cope
If you ask for help
You may be locked up
A terrorism charge
May even be clocked up
The baldy-robed brother
With the inexpressive eyes
Expresses venom with
His true lies
The experts and the Inexpert
Are busy blaming you
But none of them
Has the slightest clue
About what the Hell
They were going to do
The country is literally
Gasping for breath
George Floyd in their thousands
Whose knee on their necks?
Big brother’s knee
Has enormous reach
He presses down hard
And starts to preach
Compassion for others
And please wear a mask
And get yourself vaccinated
But where?: Don’t ask
Big Brother’s halo
Has an orange glow
Vultures are circling
Looking down below
These vultures are
Of the human kind
They gouge you completely
And leave you behind
The capital city
Is now a necropolis
A consequence of
Too many macrofollies
Dante himself
Would have abandoned hope
With this particular Inferno
Even he couldn’t have coped
But we mustn’t be cry-babies
We are told from on high
Put on a stiff upper lip
And bid the dead goodbye
The grief of thousands
Leads to despair
How does one begin
The process of care?
Help one another
Each little bit counts
Don’t be afraid to
Do what you must
You are irreplaceable:
In yourself you must trust
To do the right thing
By you and by me
By him and by her
By the whole country
Take the bureaucracy bull by its horns
And toss it aside
Much of it is optics
The bull is thermocole inside
When the going gets tough
The tough get going, they say
Gentle or tough, everyone
Has a part to play
And remember that the difference
Between Life and Death
Is just that momentary
Momentary intake of breath
Sunder and Sonati have been living and growing a forest on a small piece of land in Thekambattu in rural Tamil Nadu for the last 20 years. You can read their blogs here and here.
Featured image credit: Pariplab Chakraborty