PRIDHVI AND WE
Lalitha Kumari
You never think twice, never hang back
To cater to our needs, our benign mother
Ungrudgingly, quite generously you give
To us your children, many a boon
You feed us with your bounteous crops
You quench our thirsts with waters sweet
You give us fibres to clothe ourselves
You provide fires to keep us warm.
You bless us with things rich and sundry
Roots and nuts, fruit and honey
You feast our eyes with flowers and colours
Rills and plains, hills and vales
But mother
we do not deserve you;
You make us
rich, we turn you poor
You create
beauty, we generate filth;
You shower
kindness, we return death.
We are such ingrates as try to devour you
We are such fools as would destroy you
We turn out your bowels for the yellow metal
We drill into your heart for gaseous oil
We squeeze
out your sap with the three-month crop
We cut off
your nerves by felling trees
We suck away
your blood by burning wood;
You give us
sustenance, we take away your essence.
You are justified
mother in every way
When you thunder through the stormy winds
When you rage and blaze in the oil wells
When you erase hutments and fields in floods
For we have
no temperance, no reason, no judgement
We are
educated asses, worse than savages
Mother you
can satisfy our needs
But who will satiate our greeds?