Our Holy Sins

Oh Lord, Oh Lord, what will befall us!

Sins we’ve committed many

And huge like mountains!

Retribution is rolling down on us

And there is no escape!

Tears from innocent eyes

Which have fallen on this land

Have been crying for justice

Their voices are silent but shrill

God has heard their loud wail!

We have soiled ourselves

in our efforts to be clean

Entertained crimes in trying to be holy

We’ve submitted our mind and body

All our energies to worship our golden calf

while we crushed the  tender children

with the weighty rocks of our selfishness

Have heaped suffering on the poor

While feigning to be on the side of justice

Hypocrisy fits us well

Like a well stitched dress!

Oh Lord, Oh Lord! What will fall on us!

While protecting the holy animal

We have butchered the cowherd

How well we have been taught by sages,

We don’t feel a drop of remorse!

Oh Lord, aren’t you happy?

We are glorifying your name?

Oh Lord, aren’t you grateful to us

That we are standing vigilant

beside roads and highways ?

Mon, 12 November, 2017

The Demon Made by Midnight Magic

The little precious money we had

Was declared worthless paper

In an evening 8 PM announcement

Our beloved leader had asked us

To suffer some inconvenient days

We readied for the little predicament!

My man, a father of children three

Worked in a factory in the city, he

Rushed to catch the morning train

A tiffin box I kept in his shoulder bag

For him to eat at the noon break

He bore another worry in his brain!

He must present the dead notes to bank

To exchange them for legal money

He must stand in the queue serpentine

For without these bucks can we buy?

The little rice and vegetable we eat

Factory aside, he must stand in line!

You shouldn’t cry, you can’t complain

For our dearest leader had told us so

For hours stood my man in the crawl

Couldn’t reach the exchange counter

From morning to afternoon standing

In exhaustion, on floor he had a fall!

He had gone out alive in the morning

Returned a lifeless corpse in the evening

Leaving hungry his three children and wife

The demon made by the midnight magic

Instead of causing little inconvenience

Had cruelly strangled the poor man’s life!

Since then I wash dishes in four houses

My son left school to work with laborers

We four souls are struggling to survive

I don’t so much watch the idiot box now

There smart people mouth smart words

Our economy, they say, is on up thrive!

Xavier Bage

Fri, November 10,2017

4:45 AM

The Mobs are Out There

 

Don’t go out to the market

The bullish bunch is out there!

The streets were safe before

They are not so any more

Anywhere and any moment

They can pounce on anyone

They surround, you can’t run!

You can’t run, you can’t reason

You can be accused of treason

The mob is a mindless crowd

But each of them a fired mind

On the prowl an alien to find!

They are co travelers on a train

They are standing on roads main

With weapons of twisted justice

Believe they serve the mother land

the fuming holy patriot band!

Create no unrest, make no mess

Match yourself in food and dress

Walk quietly beside the bully dog

Until it’s asleep in sweet dreams

Until winds blow in wiser streams!

Xavier Bage

Tues, November 07, 2017

When A Mellow Morn Draws Near

When a mellow morn draws near

When the birds to me sing cheer

When the meadow’s pearls glow

And when the wind’s walk is slow

My heart soars away to heaven

Away to heaven my heart soars!

The murmur of the little stream

On the waves the sparkling beam

The meditation of the silent trees

And the buzz of just waking bees

Lend wings to my earthling mind
To touch the divine home’s doors!

 

The day’s approaching angry-face

Blows and blasts of a deathly race

Insane insults of the unkindest kind

Avoid them but they’d surely find

For that’s what this clay-life brings

Raise your head for mercy pours!

 

Xavier Bage

Mon, November 06, 2017

Death's Disco

There are blood spots on the school path

There are blood stains in the market place

There is blood flowing on the lake side

There is blood splattered on the village wall

Whose unfortunate blood? Who has fallen?

Everyday there’s mourning somewhere

Everyday there are funeral processions

Everyday we see a mother wailing somewhere

Everyday a child is orphaned, a wife widowed

Death is dancing his macabre disco everyday!

Flag draped coffins adorned with wreaths

Firing gunshots stand colleagues in uniform

Flowers none for many as they die unhonored

Felled to eternal rest into earth’s embrace

Alas! My heaven has been turned into hell!

Hold, hold the firing, stop, stop the guns!

Human woes and nature’s cries fill the air

Hear the lake sob swelled with tears and blood

Has anyone been any victorious to this day?

Enters Death flying his flag, rattling a laugh!

Xavier Bage

Thurs, November 02, 2017