Denial

Source: Pinterest

.
Distant droughts and deadly disasters
Are veiled well by this room’s blinds
An enraged storm and its vengeful plight
Hide behind these blinding lights;

A disturbing low hum plays in our insides

Yet, we won’t go outside, we won’t bring it to life.

.

Emissions that rise from the creation of
Humans, who rose from the Earth itself
Now choke
The air itself, and their own kind;

You wouldn’t want to think of that
Under these beautiful warm lights

.

Nullified are the echoes of the
Other species who were given a life
By the very intelligent beings who claim
To want to help the world survive

These lights, you could stare blankly
At them, all night

.

Some claim it is
Inevitable, the vagaries, this disaster
Inevitable yet,
is our denial

So shamelessly undeterred.

.

Also concealed far behind these curtains
Lies a laboratory with solutions both radical and mild
But the human being’s attentions will
Still go to the white lights

We are the ones who languish in denial
And we are the ones who sigh

.

If you ask me, I will tell you
The human race is flawed
It can only see half of the world at a time
Philosophies well spun that revolve around threats

Conceal the threat itself
With a gratifying chime.

.

It is a cycle that goes on –
We take an intelligent step ahead
For mankind

Then take two back

In the interests of our

Selfish minds

.

~Akarshita Chandra, August 2019

The above is my prompt at an inter-school poetry writing competition held at Symbiosis, Noida where the participants were given an hour to write on the theme SAVE EARTH.