faiths, blindly

Pray, tell me
How keeping my hair, unshorn
How keeping a beard, uncut
How wearing a turban
How wearing a tudung
How eating kosher meat
How not eating pork or beef
Will make me more pious

Should I not
Keep in touch
More
With my inside being
With my conscience
With my morality
Than
Just
Retrofit
My external façade
To please the
Cannot-be-questioned
preachers of faith

black pot, black kettle

it is odd
when china castigates japan
for its wartime misdeeds
and yasukuni shrine prayers
when its own human rights record
in tibet
is
blemished

little girl

You were only two
When your life was
Snuffed
Out
Suddenly

Little girl
You were born poor
You never knew happiness
You never played with Barbie
You were often sick
You seldom laughed
You woke up at nights
Frightened
Of the darkness
Of your family
Of getting scolded
Of getting beaten
This was your world
You never knew it was wrong
You thought it was the norm
It was the only life you knew
You never got to know a child’s fun

in china, in india

Thousands and more
miserable and cold
poor
no jobs
gnawing hunger
unwashed
sleeping on the streets
under the moonlit skies

while

their countries
proudly
shoot satellites into space
fly the latest warplanes
flirt with missiles
and nuclear bombs

a pride
crumbling on
two wobbly
bony
legs