Crisis in Civilisation
Iona Mandal
We have stunted your growth
from above and within.
Held a knife to your prosperity,
moulded your silence
as the slave of our greed.
We defaced you,
uprooted what you held dearest,
replacing it with fragile promises
that lie there; limp and untouched.
We mistook your submission
for acceptance.
but you left retaliation
in the hands of the unseen.
War against a ghost.
obscured yet conspicuous,
evident in deserted streets,
and supermarket traffic.
Let the limitations be blessings,
the constraints, a source of ventilation.
An inch closer to the reset button,
to herald in a green revolution.