27th Anniversary Rememberance Poem

Yes!

I am a rabid optimist.
For me,
Every tree that continues to stand,
Every stream that continues to flow,
Every child that runs away from home,
As an indication
That the battle
Is not only on,
It is being won.

Possibly you will tell me
About the nuclear arms race.
And all I can tell you is that
An unknown child
held my hand with love.

You will try to draw me
Into the plateau of practical life,
Tell me
That not only god but all the
Religious and irreligious leaders
Are dead.
And all I can tell you is that
Across the forest
Lives a young man
Who calls the earth his mother.

You will give me
The boring details of the rise of state power
After every revolution.
And all I can tell you
Is that
In our tribe
We still share our bread.

You will reason with me
And I will talk nonsense like this,
And because the difference between reason and poetry
Is the difference between breathing and living life,
I will read poems to you.
Poems full of optimism,
Poems full of dreams,
Maybe poems better than this.

-by  Sathyu

DEVELOPMENT (for Dow)

Bhopal – 3RD DEC 1984 to…?

Today
We remember Bhopal
Let it seep across our no-mans-land
To rise in our veins again

Hair on end

Rooted down decades deep
The fecund toxicity leaps to greet us
Rivers streams all run with the great abundance
The earth teems with rich produce
Bellies swell with the increase
Of a culture of ease; abandonment.

The progeny of the elements flourish
(the children wither and die)

-by Violet White, 3rd December 2011

Girl with candle Bhopal

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