Written piece
THE INVISIBLE THREAD
SATISH PENDHARKAR
India
About this piece
This poem speaks of an invisible thread that binds all human beings together which is the reason for our reacting in similar fashion to pain or suffering. The poem hopes that all humans will unitedly improve our Earth, before handing it over to the succeeding generation.
THE INVISIBLE THREAD
Satish Pendharkar
Why do our hearts bleed viewing news of children dying –
young innocents killed in needless, senseless wars?
Why is a delicious pizza rendered rancid when an emaciated,
starving beggar comes into view at a traffic-signal?
Why are our ears scalded as though boiling oil has been poured into them
on hearing that a teenager had acid thrown on her by a spurned lover?
Why do we feel an electric current pass through our souls when a mother
clasps our hands on accepting a blanket for her shivering toddler?
Why do sodden, sad bouquets, bought from a roadside florist whose stock
was destroyed by an unseasonal thunderstorm, emanate fragrance?
These things happen because all of us, regardless of colour or race or caste
or religion or status are bound by a common, invisible thread
like pearls of varied shapes, sizes, colours and lustres
strung together in a necklace fit for a Queen
May this thread survive wars and epidemics and floods and famines
and droughts and earthquakes and fires; may it remind us that we are
more similar than different and that we owe it to one another to ensure
that this prodigious planet given to us by God in trust is passed on by
one generation to the next in a better shape than they had inherited it.