Dear Human

By Kavya Venkateshwaran

Well, hello little human,

What do you see?

A black powdery bite

That peels the bark of that tree?

A little death that is witnessed,

An inevitable adieu,

A three-hundred-year-old tree

That saw the world before you.

Well, why little human,

Do you feel so sad?

Don’t you remember?

That it was you who did that?

A little poison here,

A little gravel there,

It crawls towards its death,

Wasn’t that unfair?

Sweet little human,

Do you see that bird?

The last of its kind.

Tries to fly homeward.

Only to find,

That it lost its home and kin,

And then sorrowfully,

Succumbs to human sin.

Dear little human,

See that giant white bear?

Well, not so gigantic anymore,

As it tries to hunt in warm air,

In the while jungle, he once ruled,

Starved, gaunt and timid is he,

His home melts around him,

And to nowhere, can he flee.

At last little human,

Why that frightened face?

It’s only the sea from the bear’s land,

That tries to occupy some space,

You see, you destroyed homes,

Destroyed lives, ended species,

Now the sea takes your land too,

And now you may lose your peace.

By Kavya Venkateshwaran