Hemant Bawankar
Tragedy of Humanity
(34 years ago in the night of December 2-3, 1984, MIC gas was leaked from the Union Carbide, Bhopal. My poem is a tribute to all those people who lost their life in this incident. This poem has been cited from my book “The Variegated Life of Emotional Hearts”.)
I heard that
in unknown nations
unknown human beings were
knowingly or unknowingly
burnt alive
killed in gas chambers
burnt in radiation…..
Since then
our humanity
has been lost in space
and slept in vain.
Remember those moments
when MIC1 was leaked
from a pesticide factory
in that dark night
when
the entire world was sleeping
and
an innocent child was weeping
embraced by
the poisonous gas
in the dead mother’s lap.
A youth
just slept
taking his last breath
on a nearby road
who was blessed
for longevity
by an astrologer.
Alas!
That innocent child…. and
so-called long-lived youth
are the sign of
thousands of dead human beings.
On that night
black or white
rich or poor
and
beyond the definition of racism
were not running
but,
entire humanity
was running.
Those
who smelled MIC1
slept with last breath
and
those who could not…
they are sick
and
approaching to slow death
with the side effect.
We can only remember
their souls
in anniversaries
of such tragedies
that is becoming
the dark side of
the humanity
the history.
- MIC – Methyl Isocyanate.
© Hemant Bawankar
