MY HEART SINKS WHEN I BEHOLD

MY HEART SINKS WHEN I BEHOLD


My heart sinks when I behold
A bomber in the sky.
Whole of the humanity,
To me, does seem to cry.

Why bomb rural huts and fields?
Why bomb urban buildings?
Why kill poor civilians
For others’ vile doings?

Why send marines to bombard
Oases in the desert?
Why must its power, US,
Across the globe assert?

Don’t the people have a right
To choose their own leader?
Why globally, of its thoughts,
The US be feeder?

Whither democracy and
Whither freedom of thought?
Whither rights of prisoners?
US, you all forgot!



• The opening line of this poem was inspired by
“MY heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky”
—Wordsworth
[http://www.bartleby.com/106/286.html]

• “Don’t the people have a right to choose their own leader?”—refers to Saddam Hussain, who was the duly elected President of his country, who was attacked and caught and executed in violation of law.

• Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format. Initially written as entry 416667 in the book US AND WAR, "WAR POETRY--award winner" . Posted in the present form on 12 September 2008.


M C Gupta
1 April 2006