to decide

Each one of us deserves
A right to be treated when sick
No matter how sick
No matter how diseased
No matter how disabled
No matter how old
Each one of us deserves
A chance to live

It is not for others
To decide who
Gets to be treated
Gets to have deformity corrected
Gets to have disease beaten
Gets to live a while longer

No matter how slim the chance
No matter we may die during treatment
The choice to be treated
The choice to live
is still ours
To make

little children and god

Little children, little angels going to school
To learn maths science english
Little children coming home
Confused

Teachers wanting a quick foothold in heaven
Spent more time preaching to them on God
Taking away little children and parents rights
To decide on their own beliefs

Leave the little ones alone with their a b and c
And send the teachers off to study ethics

(This was prompted by newspapers reports on teachers preaching to their young charges and urging them to go to churches without the knowledge or permission of their parents. By all means, proselytize to the adults who can think and decide for themselves but if they need to chalk up on the quota converted, do not take the easy way out by working on young impressionable minds.)

Bali - 1st Oct 2005

Country hillsides, decked with padi fields
Rising to the sky, Touching the white clouds
Swaying women on village tracks,
Baskets of flowers perched on their heads
Tinkles of rain swishing down from the heavens
Temples droning with music and prayer chants
Incense and scent fills the air
Bali Gods, brimful with smiles

Indian Ocean, its white foaming surf, rush up the beach
Wetting, soaking the shores
Licking the fringes of humanity
Swirling along beaches, making merry
Loud music trances in the air

Evil came exploding its knapsack
The fragrant air turns smoky, red
People ran screaming, pain
Bodies blew apart, bleeding
The Bali Gods, distressed

The ocean retreats
And comes back
Up and back it continue
Heedless, scareless