Hide and Seek: A poem by Gomathi Mohan

Where art thou hiding Oh! Compassionate Ocean of Humanity?
Your benevolent smile a rarity, perhaps sealed by lips of animosity.
Aren't you meant to echo in kind words, tolerance, and charity.
Or are you locked up in the citadel of pride, hatred, violence, and vanity?
Grew up listening to your stories of kindness and magnanimity,
Saw your ubiquitous presence in our elders' selfless generosity.
But then you deserted on claustrophobic mushrooming of nuclear families,
For you to appear, we insane strategists have to attend many homilies.
How can you be frozen and blind-folded to inhuman acts getting staged,
Why, the beasts don't spare a baby, minor, sick or aged.
Afraid to face souls in squalor and their heart-rending cries?
Are you hiding in smog that fills both our lungs and skies?
Better still sleeping on river beds, its sands ravaged and mined,
Or in the factories bellowing poison unfiltered, unfined.
Throttled by the greasy palms of those at the helm of affairs,
Heart bleeds to see that nowadays no one really cares.
Over the years we reached the space, moon, and mars,
But blew up our baggage of biased bickerings into inhumane wars.
Left behind all morals to join in the mad race of avarice,
Chanting Mantra of money and power has made us capricious.
Witness in silence- horror-ridden faces of innocence, separated at the fence,
Wake up your sixth sense and reunite, stop masquerading as Defence.
Get back to basics Oh Humanity! Step out of the ball and chain of progress,
Pray you to knock at the conscience of every heart for you to freely ingress!