Daybreak At Kottagudi

By Thomas Thottungal

I caught the sun at the crack of dawn

As it rim-lit the hill tops in golden rays

Heralding the birth of another day

Giving yet another chance

For man to forget and start anew

Forsake the hate, forgive the wrongs

And forge ahead as a kindred kind

Through ups and downs and highs and lows

Triumphs, travails and wanton woes

Pursuing mankind’s common destiny.

I know not though what lay in store

Ere the sun completes its daily chore.

More venom in the heart, more blood on the streets?

More lynching fed by brazen bigotry?

More innocent dead, dismembered parts

Strewn about the streets, blown to bits

By crude devices cleverly planted

In crowded environs for lethal impact

By faceless cowards with deranged minds

In the name of a god that’s love embodied?

If this is what the day portends,

If these are the tidings that twilight brings

It were better far this day never broke,

Better far the sun never rose.

By Thomas Thottungal