India Lost

India Lost

Like love, lost

Hope and resilience

Turn to screaming and pain

We in the West watch on

Feeling helpless

As the Holy Ganges

Cannot stop the flow

of COVID

It was in their gentle hands

A victory against the virus

Lockdowns released

Masks torn aside

And weddings reunited

Some sort of acceptance

Breathes in the pictures

On the news

As the old man lies on his hospital bed

But outside women

are wailing and furious that

nothing can be done

for the less fortunate

their pockets less lined

their tummies grumbling

often

they did not seek this out

did not go looking for disaster

The mother does not throw her daughter

Into the fire just to see

and yet the intensity of the experience

seems to be bound up with Modi

unable to expect the worst

and now the scenario is the worst

one could imagine

and India’s neighbours feel helpless

and we are shutting our doors

the London plague at its peak

was the same

inescapable grief

as I and the World watches on

I have friends born in India

Many friends have been to ashrams,

changed their names, lived in the mountains

where puma’s roam

And absolutely extraordinary country

who deserves all the love

and International solidarity

we can give

copyright - Bee Williamson 2021