It’s hard to miss the paradox
When one sees beyond
People strolling in the malls
Markets and on streets
Hustle and plow
In offices farms and factories
Gulping down trash packaged as art
Like connoisseurs with nuance
Take vacations to check off
Items from their list
Yet it’s unmissable
Their intense numbness
To pain suffering and injustice
Someone else has to survive
And to the loss
Of what life once was
Before the great divide arrived
Each one to themselves
Is their war cry
Changing clans
Their escape
From one dystopia to another

One doesn’t earn their parents
Colours of skins eyes and hair
Schools and their birth place
A mere accident
Than a triumphant achievement
And yet their immense pride
Never gets deflated
Till they lie in the death bed
Where others will deliberate
Division of assets
Before burying or cremating them
In a world running on appearances
Pretentiousness is our strength

There’s a bird who sings sweet songs
Of life beauty and joy
And the world as it sees
Leaf beneath a leaf
Branch giving rise to a branch
And sky above the clouds
It sees the world underneath the world
Multitudes existing under multitudes
Sidewise and obliquely
Each one different
Each one beautiful
Inspiring it to sing a merry song
Describing their splendour vividly
In the sweetest lyrics
Lest no one misses the beauty
That’s there to see
And what we do
We write ode to the bird
Enjoy the melody
The lyrics sadly
Escaping us always