Gold and silver and all that is nice...

Gold and silver and all that is nice
Always come with a heavy price.

You who would train your muscle and brain
For all that the world serenades as gain
And torture your brains for finding ways
To fill your coffers with merchandise
Kill, plunder, inflame and infuriate the skies
Build castles of smoke on dead men’s bones
Graves of ashes and mounds of grief
Be yours to compensate
For the sad decease of mankind’s hopes
For an untouched Paradise.

Where lust and greed and vile intent
And all that cause human fabric to be rent
Into fragments of flesh, blood and veins
Find their end at its Gates.

Vice and virtue shall be one
When tooth and claw with predator force
Tear and smear and create
An infernal tomb right where they romp
To burn and spread the residual waste
On land and sea and mountain side
Their cruel swords and flaming tongues.

Hoarse cries of vengeance, unrelenting drums,
Their wars ,their frenzied utterances , their epic jaunts
Mock wisdom ,health and all that upholds
Reason, sense, sanctioned civility
Peace and love and brotherhood and all that's prized.

Empires of hate, ungainly ties
How long will they suffice
To hold this earth together and fill the skies
With human breath , warmth and delight.
Will not the stars refuse their light
Will not the moon plunge in fright
And will not the sun stop in its diurnal flight?

By: Meera Panigrahi