Will we ever wake up!

by Victor Karunairajan

(July 02, Toronto, Sri Lanka Guardian)

From the banks of the River of Life

Amazed I watched it endlessly

As meanings flowed and lessons learnt

Wondered as my thoughts meandered

From mountain tops to coastal plains

Why civilizations flowered and floundered

Along the banks of many a river

From creation to eons of time.

Ganga from the Himalayan heights

Cherished human thoughts and dreams

And sages of old in their meditations,

Conceived God's grace in her flow.


The Tigris and the Euphrates

Mothered many human feats

Even earlier, Indus nourished

A greater pride on Asian soil

Until some demonic force

Suddenly struck with vicious might

Land was torn and many perished

Some survivors southwards fled.


The snaky rivers of further east

Watered fields and tendered crops

God’s good earth so well nourished

Nations flourished and lands enriched.


The melted snow of the Alpian range

Flowed in directions four and six

On verdant fields and vineyard slopes

Tending life in tiny townships,

Farming life their precious lot,

The Euro-folks raised sheep and cows.


On the massive South American land

There is hardly much I had learnt

There were Aztecs and other great races

Put to sword by marauding forces

All in the name of God and Empire.

What horrible destruction they really were.


Over there in my Sri Lankan home

My thoughts drew many a tear

Where land so green and fertile

Human follies and horrible pursuits

Have pitted people against people

And the rule of gun renders the air

With sobs and wails in their wake.


Will we ever wake, and in wake realize

God created us to make peace

With one and all, wherever we are

As people and nations linked in soul?

(Victor Karunairajan, a journalist with extensive East-West experience has had an exciting career having worked with Anglican, CSI and Catholic institutions, a Buddhist organization and a socialist government in as many as seven countries.)
- Sri Lanka Guardian