(Preamble: Last 2 months, Mumbai, that is home has been growing through crazy climate churn. wit extreme temperatures an dsuddenly heavy rains. It has started to take a toll on the physical and mental health of many people. It’s true in many other parts of the world as well. We are paying a price.)
There are no free lunches.
We pay
The eyes pay for the wilful blindness to what is happening to the world around us
By giving up the capacity to twinkle, and tear up in sorrow and joy
They run dry and cracked, like an arid desert land
Waiting, hardened.
To, Just close
And hoping it does not rain before that
Or else
the loud unmistakable hiss of the parched eyes
will give away the longing.
And the stupidity of not seeing.
The Feet pay,
For walking and not noticing the ground
The grass, the little flowers that playfully move
The fast ants and the slow snails,
For moving, but not moved, at all
By the rhythm of other lives
As if the feet were some marching soldiers
Following orders – from whom?
Keep moving, don’t look down
Don’t stop and feel. – Don’t stop or you will feel
They pay – By going dead.
The skin peeling off, without pain
Have you seen people not wincing during a rough pedicure?
They pay by not feeling the wet mud on a rainy day
Squishing through the toes
They pay by not being tickled by the yellow butterfly that flits gently on them
They pay by giving up the ability to spontaneously jump and skip
They pay by not feeling the sea beneath your feet, and the gentle tug of the slipping sand
Oh ! they pay.
The heart pays for it’s not feeling for the world
By not feeling for itself.
By dulling it’s voice to a whimper
By growing heavy and old
By not singing It’s songs, loud.
The Mind pays
For its intelligence in trying to control
People, nature and planets
And try to play god
For its many games in wanting to compete. And not complete
By splitting at the seams, To finally crack open
And hold the views that seemed paradoxical
By giving up it’s capacity to see beyond
By forfeiting joy and flexibility
By losing it ability to wonder and be curious
Sigh!!!!
When will we see, move and feel.
And know its costing us
Who else will have to keep paying?
How long does something have to hurt till we decide to
See, to move to feel to be open?
To realise we are paying dearly.
And we are leaving an impossible debt
to our future generation.
It is time yet, then to stop ?
And feel?
