Our Future

Kings have built temples
Pharaohs pyramids
Politicians have their statues
Ozymandias, too
And the Ambanis have their Antilia
All this to proclaim
To the future:
I was here

For most of us however
Our tryst with posterity
Is through our children
And yet we countenance
The suffering of so many children

War, hunger, malnutrition
Exams, competition, insecurity
Gratuitous violence, browbeating, repression

Each child that suffers
Is a blight on
Our collective future