Boats

I’d make boats of paper

and sail them on the waterlogged streets

in it I’d write a message of peace

for the minds to be free of power and greed

I’d write so the plague would forever end

those people unaware, unarmed, killed by siblings and friends

like rats they'd die and continue to die

the flattened boats under the butchered sky.

You taught me mom

to think of souls who lost in the game

in their names they’d float without guilt or shame,

now I am old and you a star

in the sky like another scar,

you are watching my child make those barren boats

in the middle of hatred that choke our throats,

the couplet in Hindi you’d sing and write

'come I will take you under such a sky

where there's no grief, no tears,

but happiness endless is on the high!'

Tell me mom, when will this stop
that sky for our mother will it ever pop
can't even count I'm tired to see,
let boats of hope drown the angry sea