We are neither owners or renters
Of the gifts given to us
Subscribing to this false notion
Has snowballed into centuries of commotion
Nature has been kind to bestow
Gifts in all colors of the rainbow
All it can do is silently watch
As we plunder and botch
What has taken the earth’s age to create
In order to enhance our growth rate
There is a way to strike a balance
It can’t happen in aloof silence
Riches from fossils mirrors the finitude of time
That gift may have already passed its prime
Enveloping us in a carbon cloud
If we aren’t careful, it may turn into a gigantic shroud
Time’s running out to behold
The gift of nature’s gold
In its pristine purity
Few places are left to enjoy it in serenity
A lot has been bestowed
After humans cracked the atomic code
Progress has extracted a price
We cannot replace nature with a device
There will be nothing left for nature to bequest
If we continue to act like an unruly guest
Healing nature will take generations
But only with the cooperation of all nations
The wheel of humanity will continue to roll
Even as we dig ourselves a deeper hole
The outer struggle may be solved by one individual’s effort
The inner journey is not afforded the same comfort
The inner gifts are easily forsaken
Unless there is a resolve to awaken
The dormant life within
But that takes great discipline
Afraid of being left behind
Many chances are declined
Even as life moves on
From dusk to new dawn
Repeated over and over again
Life’s never looked in a new vein
There are gifts galore
How can life ever be a bore?
Every moment must be a celebration
That joy is the only liberation
By dancing in step
We avoid a poisonous web
That has entrapped the majority
Into the politics of wealth and poverty
This gift of nature is to be equally shared
And its destruction spared
As we climb the material stairwell
We segregate ourselves into many a citadel
The moon and the sun must be having a good laugh
In the book of evolution, we are barely a paragraph
The value of all our gifts can only be known
When we understand time is on a loan
But the mind operates by a different clock
Especially when thoughts become a stone age war hawk
Even as life is being taken seriously
It ebbs away mysteriously
That should teach us something
About being so trusting
In the promise of immortality
That isn’t nature’s speciality
Change is inevitable
It should make us question if our reality is credible
The earth is a great gift exchange
From the oceans to the tallest mountain range
It is ours to enjoy
But not to destroy
In return we can offer a gift
Of ending the oldtimers’ rift
As we embrace the newcomers
To this open theatre of wonders
- N. Seshadri
