This is a poem I had written almost two years back when I was about 12 on world water day.
Hope you like it…
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I woke up afresh, kissed my teddy,
And for school I started getting ready
I ate a heavy breakfast and set off for school
After packing pencils, notebooks, and other educational tools
I suppose at school towards the earth I am the most greener,
Using eco-buddy books and pencils makes me clever
After eating our brunch, my friends and I went to the school garden
The soil had just been watered, it wasn’t hardened
Everything was blossomed, except a few trees,
They were being cut to be burnt on Holi,
Woodcutters stuck to them like fleas
But I didn’t stop them, after all those trees were just a few
Their sapling would one day grow and brew
Outside school I saw a dog, very cold and hungry
My friends threw water at him
But I did not stop them because I knew then they would get angry
On returning home, I found I was very hungry
My parents gave me various options- bread, soup, vegetables or mathris
But I had none,
I sulked and said,’’ is that some fun?’
On hearing this my parents started the preparations
They made different dishes so that I could have variations
By that time I prepared myself some strawberry crush
But then I realized I wasn’t thirsty
So I threw it down the flush
Then I slept, without changing my uniform
Even though I knew the washer man would have to wash it again
But after all, water was earth’s largest form
When I woke up, the sun was replaced by the moon
Yawning I went to my mother’s room
Sulekha was the site she was working on
Writing poems, whether dusk or dawn
This time the topic lay-
‘WORLD WATER DAY’
It showed the picture of a frog sitting on a leaf,
All sad in grief
On which my mother wrote,
“The frog is criticizing, saying that earth would be far better without humans on it
To be taken as a note”
But the next picture which I saw
On my mind left a flaw
Even my mother did not write on it
It was too over-whelming to digest
A skinny, starved boy lying in a famine broken area
No greens, no water, because of the rain’s failure
An eagle waiting beside the boy
For him to die and then she would eat him with joy
I went out of my mother’s room, thinking,
“Are there people on earth who don’t have water for ever drinking?’
I had never before realized the importance of every single drop and grain
Maybe because I had never suffered a famine’s pain
I took a bite of a chocolate nevertheless
But now even the sweetest seemed so tasteless
Finally I understood what to do
I will save every droplet of water and grain of food
I will protect even a little sapling
And make earth greener
So that I never come in anyone’s ‘criticized list’, ever.
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