Hiking and skiing adventures

Have always given me rapturous delight.

Bathed in these immense emotions,

I think of global warming

And the damages we are doing

To the Amazon rain forest,

The great barrier reef,

The Antarctic and the Rhone Glacier.

The sea is rising every year

With the melting of icebergs.

Questions loom to my mind,

The first one being,

‘Will our children and grandchildren

Forgive us and our irresponsibilities?’

Aren’t we producing more than we need?

Will our greed cease or grow more and more?

The uncharted oceanic depths,

The unknown geographies,

The heart of forests and deserts

That cast a light on the divine

Are all hiding from us,

Fearing our limitless exploitations.

The quizzical gaze of grazing cows,

The soldiers with blistering and bleeding feet,

The beach-comber on the sandy shore,

The windswept fields and the busy bees

All know the karmic path of man

And yet, all are so helpless.

pramila khadun