Tsunami

Oh my beloved India, oh my poor India, why do you suffer so?

What is Nature’s grouse with you, that She fills your cup with so much woe?

Why is it that year after year, Cruel Tragedy lashes out at you,

Why is if that She never lets you rest, striking out with malice anew?

You are a nation always under siege, cyclone or mudslide, fire or flood,

If not earthquakes, famine and hunger, then caste and religion, riots and blood.

When whimsical tragedy befalls us, we blame if on our previous birth,

Did you also do something, before you came to earth?

Or maybe too many of us sinners, our burden on your shoulders weigh,

Jesus died once for us, but we kill you every day.

Or perhaps if is us who stepped aside, who saw you suffer but turned and left,

Deserting you when you needed us the most, your wound still open, your heart bereft.

And today we watch you suffer again, as giant waters retch and heave,

Mixed in blood like undigested food, half-eaten bodies on your shores they leave.

You suffer in silence, just as we watch in silence, without a soothing word,

Every lifeless body slashing your soul, like a wound from an angry sword.

We will watch in silence too, tomorrow when aid begins to arrive,

The coyotes will start to gather, on your sores they will thrive.

And you think that you have seen the depths of tragedy and suffering and then some?

Oh no, my poor misguided souls, the worst is yet to come.

Beware the butchers, they are coming, they will cut you open and feast as they gloat,

They’ll drink your blood and knaw at your insides, belching and moaning and sighing as they bloat.

Praying for relief, are you, you fool? With Bhopal and Orissa and Gujarat and Kutch still waiting, you hope?

And you think your turn will come in this lifetime or in your grandchildren’s, you dope?

It’s not that we don’t feel your pain, it’s not that we don’t want the wounds to mend,

We offer you our sympathy and our donation, be happy with it, because that’s all we can send.

As you writhe in agony and thrash in pain, from afar we will watch, without too much fuss,

Oh my beloved India, oh my poor India, maybe you too should have left with us.