PRAMILA KHADUN

 

PRAMILA KHADUN

 

Today, We Shall Sit Together

 

Today, we shall sit together

And say a prayer.

Prayers have power and group prayers

Take one to those heights

Where angels are not afraid to tread.

Let us pray for the vulnerable first,

That ritualistic child abuse will disappear,

Child labour will be inexistent

And all children will have equal opportunities

For food, shelter, clothing, love and education.

Let the muslin saree flutter

Freely in the air,

Let the dress get the respect they deserve

And the salwar kameez worn with pride

By girls and women without whom

No one can exist.

Like vapour, let sex trafficking evaporate,

Like snow, may rape melt

And may no woman be battered.

May men get respect without discrimination,

Whether they are Ministers or food growers,

Single or married, gay or differently abled.

With enlightening radiance, may they build

A world where nature is treated as a goddess

And animals protected so that they

Walk by us, fearless

And head held high.

 

 

Has Man Really Evolved?

 

A veil of melancholy hangs over my face

When I think of the way the earth

Is reacting to the accumulated

Sins of mankind.

The prominent and pioneering leaders,

The makers of civilization,

The saints with a halo round their heads,

The reasonable and reachable trend setters,

The poets, painters, singers and path finders

Are all perched in delicate silence like grapes.

I feel so suffocated thinking of air pollution,

A nausea grips me thinking of water pollution

And noise pollution is about to make me deaf.

The skycrapers are touching the sky

And the farthest recesses of the mind

Are being dug out to be able

To settle on the moon and Mars

When down below, children are dying of hunger,

Snowfall killing the homeless

And brothers are making walls

Instead of bridges.

Can we say that man has evolved?

Hearths and homes are many

Mourning the deaths of beloved ones

In attacks, confrontation, wars and blasts.

Nobody has time either for God or for oneself.

The ratrace for amassing wealth is irresistible

As if wealth is everything in life.

When will man realize that we are all one.

The day this happens, it will mean

That man has really evolved.

 

The Digital Age

 

Living in the digital age,

Where fast-paced life demands

Brevity in everything, even in love-making,

Man has lost connection with his heart.

Living in a world of severe discordance,

With resurgance of ethnic and sectarian conflicts,

Where natural calamities are rampant,

And brothers severe ties with brothers,

There is confusion in man’s mind

And he can no longer sit quietly

Reminiscing his beautiful childhood days.

Spreading peace needs the body-soul symbiosis,

And to do that we need no hypnosis.

It is like a plain analysis

By people of high spirits on love’s basis.

Let us hold hands and be together

To avoid disasters one after the other.

Like chaff, we do not want to be blown by the wind,

Nor like litter, be thrown in the dustbin.

All we want is a little love and understanding

In this dangerous digital age, slowly fading.

PRAMILA KHADUN

Mrs PRAMILA KHADUN is a poetess from Mauritius. She has had 4 collections of poetry published entitled ‘Rajnee’, ‘Kavi’,‘Priyumvada’ and Igniting Key. Her Novel entitled “When love speaks” has also been published in India. Her book “Food and Nutrition Simplified” is currently being used by Cambridge School Certificate in School in Mauritius. Her two projects, “Understanding Diabetes” and her collection of 108 Poems on peace and love entitled “Shangri – la” are currently under print. She is a retired educator and lives with her husband and three children.