Life, O you gracious lady,

        Why have you forsaken us

     In a world as empty as

    We, the living dead?

    Parched land we have become

        With all ties of love and humanism lost-

        In the dreary deserts of selfishness!

                     Immersed in insincerity and indifference,

                     We plunge ahead in an un-understanding way.

                     Armed with anger, jealousy, dishonesty, deceit

           Our way to success we pave!

                    Weaving cobwebs for others all our life

                    We hope to reach the summit of our life!

                    But, alas, our sticky web traps and

                    Rolls us into a ‘mummy’!

                    We befriend drugs, alcohol, gambling

                    And fly into the fake world of ephemeral ecstasy

                    Only to be smothered in the burning anguish of hell.

                   Here every ounce of blood is squeezed out

                  To shrivel us up into unrecognizable wretched skeletons!

                   Like famished vultures cloaked in a travesty of life-

          We tear out our own brethren

                   And loathsomely feed upon one another!

         Dear Life, I implore you

                   To enlighten and inundate our path with love,

                   To help us extinguish the flame of all our obnoxious ways

                   And make this arduous journey a smooth, loving one!

                                                                       ~Anuradha.S.Bannore

                                                                          Vadodara, Gujarat