THE NEW MILLENNIUM

P. N. Sampath

Hail New Millennium! Thou art most welcome!

To invest the earth with true wisdom;

The past years gave us marked progress,

In arts and sciences, in trade and commerce,

Invented the telephone and telex, radio and television,

Sent man into space, and then to the Moon on exploratory mission,

The Industrial Revolution promoted enterprise,

Smokestacks soon began to stab the skies;

The information technology evolved a new power shift

Swamping the earth, leaving it to cope with this novel gift -

The World was aghast when Hiroshima blew off with atomic blast;

But it proved a deterrent against further holocaust –

We saw great thinkers and leaders of men,

Eminent inventors, wielders of the mighty pen;

We saw slavery abolished and the last of Apartheid,

And the Apostle of Non-violence who got India freed -

Industrial waste and pollution are prone

To punch holes in the pure Ozone;

Sparkling rivers are turning into stinking sewers and humps

And placid lakes into huge garbage dumps –

Let the New Millennium call a halt to all these trends,

And also everything that harms and offends;

Let us no more grope along the dry bones of the past,

But think of the disinherited, the poor and the outcast,

And strive for a better world after a thorough overhaul,

To raise the quality of life for one and all.

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