The Sky has Caught Fire

Elsy is a poet of peace. She questions terror and war in this poignant verse exclusively for Different Truths.

The sky has caught fire,
so has man’s conscience!

Bhoom! Bhoom!
the bombs thunder.

Sky and earth go afire
in a little country
bombarded by Giants
under the promise
of keeping it terror-free.

Since when is demolition
equated with regeneration?
war equated with peace?
killing bracketed with saving?

Is the conscience of mankind
so deep frozen
that the fire that rages
from sky to sea
fails to thaw it?

The tempestuous sighs
surging up from torn hearts,
fail to sway it?

The torrential tears tumbling
down, fail to stir it?

I have only questions,
where do I look for answers?
to the hauteur that bombards?
or unarmed agony that groans under?

©Elsy Satheesan
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Elsy Satheesan
Elsy Satheesan is a retired Professor of English. She had been teaching in colleges under the Govt. of Kerala, India. Currently, she resides in Virginia, USA. ‘Random Musings’ is her first volume of poems. ‘Summer Snow’, is the forthcoming one. Her poems have been published in national and international anthologies. Short stories in Malayalam have been published in weekly and fortnightly, in Kerala. Humanity is her religion, and poetry, her passion.

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