Need of the hour

 My song of fire was playing in a loop

As my heat seared your terrain, painting it a dull taupe…

With your skulls throbbing away to the steady bass of the sun,

I knew I had topped the mercury charts – Summer on number one!

I should have stayed content with the sight of the cloudless sky

But alas! Why did I suddenly stop to spy?

 

There it was, the parched crow, flying towards the ledge,

With the streams all dried up, a kind soul had taken the pledge

To set out a bowl of clean water, refilling it with care

For his feathery friends to survive – a sight so touching and rare!

 

I chuckled at the disruption of power – frayed tempers in tow.

But the tireless technicians worked in silence, their heads bowed, their faces aglow –

Like a lamp, each burnt to light up lives,

On their sacrifice, the civilisation that thrives!

 

Barefoot, the poor boy stepped out at noon

But there lay the tender gulmohar ‘neath the blossoming tree, dead but ready to soothe!

The first drop of the short-lived drizzle trickled down his grateful face,

Tugging at my heartstrings – my mind now in a haze …

My wrath at carbon emissions and ozone holes

Had me thinking if I should cause the climate change, across the tropics and the poles …

Yet, as a listless face slices the mangoes and the water melons – to sell but seldom to consume,

I pray that the glaciers do not melt like the frozen desserts you hold –

You hold the mighty key to replenish, to strike a balance,

With that, even the failing humanity has a redeeming chance …