JOSHUA
Dr. C. Jacob
Betrayed and blasted by Ingratitude,
O, Joshua
We look to you for comfort and consolation :
We walk in your footprints, counting your tears of awe,
And see in you a Firdhousi or a Thomas
Paine
Stung by some heartless sultan or George Washington :
We still breathe in solace in your immortal ‘Gabbilam’
When idols are preferred to hungry men
and fed
And for each stone is built a golden
mandapam,
Or we, when driven out and bats are
invited
And shelterless we remain in the scorching sun :
Yet when we meet at your "Smasanavati”
We feel as if we were inglorious Miltons
O, iconoclast, O, humanist,
O, rationalist,
O, universal soul, let me salute you
heartily once.