SOMETHING SHINING NEW
Swarming locusts of viruses and cancers
Felling friends and loved ones to the silent
Sawing of trees in faraway forests —
And Mother Earth cries tears of acid rain.
Killing machines of man’s fertile invention
Harvesting their bloody crops, toil night and day …
Just
war or just war, innocents die the same
In the power, resources, chest thumping game.
Don’t judge me by the urge to destroy this world,
And build upon it something shining new;
Fixed in memory, the rivers and streams
I walked beside and crossed to new pastures —
The fountains of my youth I’ve drained —
And I cannot drink this corporate brew.
… Arshad M Khan