By Huh, you have run pretty fast then?
Not long before,
When the forests were dense and rivers clean,
I caressed you with fresh air.
My friend, but you have run too much, too far.
I sighed when I saw you leave my lap.
You were then just a little, barbarian chimp
Willing to hang into weak boughs of trees—
To risk a heartbeat for a mesmerizing sight.
But you advanced, my dear.
I watched you when you started your civilization
When rivers and valleys inspired you to create—
Farms, houses, religions, temples, and tales.
I rejoiced your progress, and you began to return
To jungles—as a civil or an evil force?
I thought civil then, but we all romanticize and mistake
Just to pay a big, big price.
You clutched my throats, penetrated my chest.
I melted, my branches protested, rivers shrieked, and land quivered.
Yet you were indifferent at your best. Well, best?
Two ears were just enough to make you deaf,
One heart just enough to shred thousands—
With no guilt.
No harm to you—
Your face gleams, mind prospers.
It is just me that aged bled, and agonized.
I am rotting.
I reek of wounds ignored since ages.
Will you acknowledge you’re the only one
I have with senses?
What a race my friend.
But little did I know,
That you will run backwards, blindfolded.
I am suffocating.
Alas! Stupidity is contagious indeed.
I hear—
You knell on your brother too.
You chase your kinfolks to death.
You know I am not scared of death—
Just of murderers.
What should I say to an intelligent being?
To a wonderful runner?
Will you let me know why are you running?
To reach or escape?
I can’t run though. Will you help me?
I see you’ve tried.
And I confess—
Denser are the protests, summits, exhibitions, and conferences,
Hollower are my forests, mountains, wildlife, and glaciers.
My child, I dare not to curse.
Instead, dare to show you ways to
Other lands, stars, and a bigger universe.
You will fly farther and farther.
Till you find another hanging garden.
Only some, I muse, can turn
A heaven into hell.
And we call them intellectuals.
Will you do me a favor this time?
Please sanitize your greed,
Model a sustainable plan,
Before your mission into the unknown.
I think, or like to hope,
It will also help me to ease my pain.
You see we all become selfish
When a heaven starts to be a hell.
-Nischal Bhandari
