Where tigers prowled for flesh <br />Where scorpions sprouted <br />From an abandoned earth <br />Into such a thick forest of rocks, <br />Into such a despised desert of humanness <br />A man came and stamped his foot. <br /> <br />There were wild grasses all around – <br />With bleeding hands <br />He began pulling them out by the roots. <br />The darkness grew and grew <br />But he knew he had something to do. <br />When the fingers of his fellowmen <br />Kept vanishing <br />When their tongue-tied mouths <br />Were going parched <br />He drew water from the Ganges of his heart <br />And quenched their thirst. <br /> <br />Their mutilated palms <br />Now tightened their grip <br />On the untiring sickle and spade. <br />So from a deserted earth <br />Sprouts appeared <br />Grew and flowered. <br />They had successfully grown their bread. <br />He carried the vegetables <br />And the fruits (of their toil) <br />To the market <br />Of the outside world. <br />But that world <br />Feared in them <br />Contagium. <br />And refused any barter. <br />They were fed on ignorance – <br />They threw cold water <br />On these men <br />Struggling to rise <br />From the eddies <br />They were caught in. <br />But they had a spirit <br />Out there <br />To row them <br />To the shore. <br />So after the dreary night <br />Of torrents and thunderbolts <br />When some light <br />Appeared on the horizon <br />The world saw a beautiful garden <br />Beyond the thick and opaque fence <br />Which their narrowness had erected. <br />The outsiders now shamefully caught <br />A fresh fragrance in the air <br />And slowly walked in <br />Through its open gates <br />Into this marvelous ‘Forest of Bliss’. <br />There those crippled fingers <br />Had erected <br />A tower of learning <br />For their brethren outside. <br />There those bleeding hearts <br />Had created <br />An oasis of love and peace.<br /><br />Kannan G<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/g-baba-amte-1994-the-taming-of-the-times/
