If I were a cloud: A poem by Amit Agarwalla

Wandering aimlessly last night in a dream, 

I met a cloud on whose bosom, a thunder screamed, 

I asked it, "why are you so proud?

Not present at places of need, at places you are too loud?"

"Don't you have a heart, creating havoc unhesitatingly you blast?

Can't you think better and plan smart?"

The cloud said to me, wearing a divine shroud, 

"Tell me what will you do if you were a cloud?"

In my ego, I said, if I were a cloud, I would make sure I am never so loud, 

Giving equal rain to each place, I will make my God, happy and proud.

If I were a cloud, I will go to all places, And, I will draw with my colour, water traces, 

So none would ever die of thirst, There will be a world happy and just.

The cloud smiled, "you think I am unjust?, You humans don't have even an iota of trust,

In some false sense of superiority, You are yourself inviting, all these calamities." 

How can a cloud fly, if you taint the air, Cutting the trees you are killing me, that's unfair, 

The pollution you spread, makes water so deplete, At times I'm murdered, even before getting complete." 

"And, you blame me for not being fair, 

While you are the reason of your own despair, 

If you were a cloud, you would know my pain, 

How I bear the torture, to give you a share of rain."

"But thankless you are, you see me only as love's sign, 

Need me only when you are devastated by heat's crime, 

Selfishness is in your action, and yet asking this question aloud, 

You are unfit to be a human, rest aside being a cloud."