793 | THE PERILS OF PROGRESS

Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn

The Perils of Progress

We’re aboard a rudderless boat,
The pace lost between nature and species,
Like two soldiers marching out of step.
What were once old-age diseases and disabilities
Are now found in sperm, embryos, and infants.

Global warming is poised
To spit its deadly venom,
Like the raised hood of a cobra.
It crawls clandestinely,
Like a crocodile in quest of its prey.

Climate betrays like a chameleon changes its color,
Calamities arrive like uninvited guests,
Summer burns like a furnace fire,
Winter falls like snow on Everest.

Some by drought, some by deluge;
Draining drops of diligence
Into the gutter of self-carved calamity.

Vivekanand Jha, India

from: Bridging the Waters: An International Bilingual Poetry Anthology

Co-Published by Korean Expatriate Literature & Cross-Cultural Communications