OMN-“I”-POTENT

I rubbed two stones accidentally

I found them give out sparks;

 

I realised it was fire, providentially

I, on a long voyage, embarked;

 

I was eating raw flesh of animals

I started cooking now, with fire;

 

I used to trudge, then I invented wheel

I no longer had to walk; I was on a roll;

 

I graduated from animal skin to clothes

I moved from hunting food to cultivation;

 

I demolished my living in cave dwelling

I built tree houses and then masonry;

 

I was simple, contented and happy

I co-existed with nature in harmony;

 

I gave up barter and created currency

I invented letters, words and language;

 

I discovered steam-power and steam engine

I discovered penicillin, radium, power of atom;

 

I informed, I taught and I educated myself

I found medicines to prolong mankind’s life;

 

I discarded monarchy and pagan practices

I followed from time to time epochal messiahs;

 

But, wait…

 

I cruised along my path of evolution merrily

I somewhere ignored a universal cosmic axiom;

 

“I have not inherited the earth, the planets, the Milky Way, the flora, the fauna, the water, the air and the environment at large, but merely borrowed it from my children.”

 

I invented deadly tools that destroy mankind

I created the gun, the bullet and the OK Corral;

 

I created artificial boundaries and created countries

I waged war, wounded and maimed, created refugees;

 

I unleashed the atom on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

I created mass destruction from life-saving chemicals;

 

I invented machines that relentlessly consume fossil fuel

I created a lifestyle that consumes but not replenishes;

 

I altered into cacophony the cosmic symphony

I adopted a lifestyle, at once empty and phoney;

 

I ate gluttonously while a half of the world starved

I emptied earth’s resources as if I haven’t a tomorrow;

 

I dressed up lavishly when the unlucky went half naked

I filled my coffers without a thought for the poor and jaded;

 

I consumed with impunity, I earned without any charity,

I enjoyed without sharing, I spent without magnanimity;

 

I have caused hatred, religious and otherwise

I have unleashed strife unmindful and unwise;

 

I suffered from megalomania, I practiced apartheid

I created religions; I built ghettos with unscalable walls;

 

I created hatred and divided man from man

I alone am responsible for everything unhuman;

 

I now watch helplessly, the erosion of all values human

I cannot myself undo all my acts that are inhuman;

 

I watch the world on the brink of self-destruction

I am man, the noble creature of God’s creation.

***

By: Shyam Sundar Bulusu