Poem: A Man atop a Mountain

A Man atop a Mountain

Sat a man atop a mountain,
And looked around to ascertain,
Whether there still lay a chance,
That we’d wake up from this trance.

To his left there were railway tracks,
Elephants crossing it were oft subject to train attacks,
The forests all around, high and near,
For timber and agriculture had been cleared.

Every snake spotted was beaten,
With clubs, sticks and batons,
(The crow-pheasants, kingfishers and the paradise fly-catchers,)
Those were once seen aplenty,
Weren’t sighted as often lately.

All the rivers and streams had been damned,
By sand mining, water pollution and the large dams,
While into the ground we drilled deeper and deeper,
As the confined aquifers receded further and further.

This did leave him quite aghast,
But he realised that all was not yet lost,
There still remained trees to cut and elephants to kill,
And ground water and oil wells to drill.

The fly catchers and pheasants still were seen,
Even though not as oft as it had once been,
The leopards, snakes, and tigers still were spotted,
Even if it were only to be hunted,

Things are bad,
But do not be sad,
Let’s be the change we want to see,
After all it’s drop by drop that you make the sea.
 
We humans have been blessed with everything we need,
Maybe just not enough to satisfy the greed,
But as long as you have everything you really require,
Then what pray is the reason for all these selfish desires?

Mukund Palat Rao, 24th September ‘10

All photos courtesy Mukund P Rao