Weigh Before You Slay

A butchered bleeding stump

Of a once gigantic Peepal tree

Stood askance on a roadside

What was my crime?

That I nestled a thousand avians?

And gave out tons of O2?

That I hosted a merry meeting?

And sheltered wanderers too?

Nay.......!

I came in the way......!

Of madly marching marauding mankind

They came one day with axe and cutter

I sobbed, I moaned, I wished to mutter

Do not commit the blunder of plunder

Why no one sensed danger, I wonder

Bit by bit they chopped off

My crown my foliage and my limbs

A scarred torso left behind

A marred ugly bloodless clump

Bare avenues bereft of vines

Glory of Gulmohar gradually dying

Lush laburnums in line of fire

Canopies of banyans awaiting pyre

What with burgeoning humans and wheels

You snatched our space you stooped to steal

Sacrificial goats first casualty

Of your reckless expansion activity

'Murder of Mute' we witness everyday

Thousands of my brethren fallen prey

To make way for rails or bay

Doomsday, I must say, not far away

Monumental destruction monumental loss

Stop! O foolish man, Stop!

Blighted future harvest of dust

You sure will reap for greed and lust

Today I and my ilk stand dumb and mute

We only pity thee, you senseless brute

Advancement at what cost? must ask thee

Sounding your death knell committing hara-kiri

Alarm bells are ringing loud and clear

Fragile ecology on brink of tear

Back to Nature judicious consumption

Sustainable growth your only salvation