The Jamun Tree

By Anuja Gohil

A Jamun tree previously stood there, you know?

Strong, tall, rooted yet unbound did it grow

Never asked for anything in return for all its fruits

Now it’s all gone; foliage, the shade and roots!

Why did it have to fall, this epitome of gentle kindness?

A testament to the strange nature of human blindness

For what impulse drives us to harm that which helps us?

What madness does encourage this cruel, impious fuss?

It makes no sense to me, this hatred for things that just be

A crime against all that is pure and in fear do not flee

Echoing through ages, a paradox that shadows thus

An inherent contradiction, in the soul of each of us

The mystery of human tendencies, twisted and bizarre

Unable to know right from wrong, we are?

Or is it just the foundation of our minds to be abstruse?

But doesn’t even a child know not to hurt and abuse

Why then do so-called grown-ups make such a decision?

Culling, killing, maiming, destroying with precision

All for what, just some meager obsessive personal greed?

Perhaps, only too late we will realize, the price of this selfish creed

By Anuja Gohil