Won’t You Agree


by Homen Thangjam 

Won’t you agree,
If I
Say we’re living in hard times
Sorrow as the centre, just like the
Sun in the centre, with the
Planets as cognates of eternal time
Just like living beings, in a
Never stopping revolution
Like the cycle of life.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Say binary opposition is the truth
Life begets death, what else you can think of
In happiness lies sorrow, although
Trinity rules the universe
Creation, preservation and destruction
Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
Seeking to harness harmony in turmoil.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Speak of the trinity of time, too
The three faces - yesterday, today and tomorrow
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery
But today is a gift and thus, a present
Alas! We learn not from past, ever lost in
Search for a perfect future, let drift by the present, while
Caught in mundane yet oddities of life.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Say yesterday is filled with
Tales we dearly hold and read of
War, gory and misery, great epics
Beowulf, Mahabharata, Ramayana
Iliad & Odyssey, Nibelungenlied, Aeneid
And Divine Comedy, of few I know, then
Tales of kindness, compassion and brotherhood.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Say today is filled with
Imageries we passionately watch
Babies suckling on bone-dried breasts in Africa
Limbless starving children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Jaffna
Museum of human skulls in Cambodia, shrines of nuclear bomb
Victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, baby in an earthen pot
Beside the funeral pyre of her mother in Manipur,
of few I know.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Say today like yesterday we lust after
Smog and acid rain, even when there’re mountain ranges
Covered with white snow, and camouflaged military fatigues
Amidst emerald forest foliages, love to deafen chirping songs of crickets
Gleeful laughter of children, confused giggles of brides with
Landmines, TNT, IED and nuclear bombs
Hope, trust and fraternity we blow up to ashes.
Won’t you agree,

If I
Say today we wage war in the name of “people”
And humanity, for oil, gas, mineral and wealth
Deprive the poor from food and fatten the rich with fat
Stock the arsenals with nuclear weapons
Equip state forces with WMDs, and talk of equality
Justice, solidarity and world peace, award
Peace prize to genocidal kings just as we worship,
Shiva the Destroyer.
Won’t you agree, and I know you won’t,

If I
Say we live in hard times; join me in a revolution
Let’s end the misery, arise, awake and sleep not
Break free from the chains of mirage, I know your answer:
“We’re busy making strategy for change, for a better tomorrow
Computing the cost analysis of the change, for peace and prosperity
In the name of Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
Satyam Sivam Sundaram, Satyameva Jayate!”

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Notes 
1. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery But today is a gift and thus, a present”, adapted from Kungfu Panda directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, Dream Works Animation,
2008.
2.    TNT Trinitrotoluene, used as dynamite explosive
IED: Improvised explosive device
WMDs: Weapons of mass destruction

"Arise, awake and sleep not":
From Vivekananda's Chicago speech Satyam Sivam Sundaram: "Truth is God and God is beautiful"

Satyameva Jayate: "Truth Alone Triumphs"
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