There is no ocean of abundance
Where boundless blessings flow,
Don’t go looking for Utopia
On mirages, please go slow.

This world now full of wonders
Many more than the seven we knew,
The one’s we learnt on a mother’s lap
As happily, we grew.

No time spent/ wasted on the “telly” of today
Where little children, sadly, see violence on display.
Screams of terror and anguish, drowned by “anchors” all
How much nicer was the cricket field, the game of football!

And, for the girls of the day there was more for them to do
Helping around the home, living more naturally,
Picnics, school, dolls and more, a real world for all
Movies and such family fun, all occasionally.

The world moved just as well, perhaps, better than now
Oiled and greased by Compassion, the wheels rotated well,
Life was very simple, days and nights knew what do
Play and work and when fatigued, ‘sleep’ the name of the Alarm bell,

The one we rang to get lost in dreams,
When the Sun went to another,
To brighten the lives of those in darkness
A mother, a father, a sister or brother

Or, a pal somewhere, somewhere, far away
Telepathy, fuelled by strangd empathy
Destroyed today by a naughty “apple”,
No, not the one that Adam and Eve ate
But, the one with numbers with which
We daily, phonetically,  grapple.

Life, now a virtual battle of sorts
Our toys now in the skies,
Truth given a royal burial
We thrive on masterly, lies.

All humans part of the dramas played
Morbid action everywhere,
Conventional, nuclear, all unclear
Laughter slain by eternal fear.

Where, O Where, has Innocence gone
The beauty of it forever lost,
Drowned in the seas, capsized
Alas! At an unfathomable cost.

(The author is a prolific poet who has over 30 poetry books to his credit. He can be reached at ashoksawhny06@gmail.com/ www.ashoksawhny.com)