Insiduous Evil
Woe betide humankind as it marches on technology.
We had the evil machinations of war,
Of death unleashed from mouths of guns,
And man-made thunder from above,
Laying waste to home and life and limb.
I've heard of evil spawned
From unreined despotic rule,
Of genocide and how it was designed
To wipe out David's Star.
How gas and gun were by decree
Used to grind a people to the dust.
I see evil in the machinations of men
Conniving to cheat and steal.
But it was not Zyklon of the Holocaust,
Or Sarin and Phosgene
That caused a tragedy
Of scale that was unforeseen.
As men stirred from a restful sleep,
As men went about their work,
As children prepared for school,
As wives stirred their morning pots,
A vaporous miasma was spewed from vents
An insidious evil that soon spread
With sinister intent.
No warning or time was given
As laboring lungs gasped out
Their last precious breath
To be overwhelmed by noxious gas.
They fell like flies upon the streets,
In bed, at work,
At crossings of the rail,
At termini of bus and train,
Their destinations changed
With pitstops of Hell
Before Mercy conveyed them
To their individual definitions of Afterlife.
The Passover in ancient times
Had intent and divine decree
And spared the chosen.
But this?
They said it was an accident
Of neglect,
Corporate cost cutting,
Greed for more and more.
Third December Eighty Four
Was when evil came knocking-
Methyl Iso Cyanate or MIC was its name,
And left its mark forever.
Bhopal, I had cried for thee!
~ 27 Jun 2016~
Based on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy
Copyright © Karam Misra | Year Posted 2016
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