Philosophy

Image from www.abcgallery.com
Gustav Klimt. Philosophy (final state), 1899 - 1907. Oil on canvas. Destroyed by fire in 1945. 430 x 300 cm.

All our philosophy

of millennia vintage

turns its back

on injustice of centuries.

The lone lama wanders

through the world

attracting attention

to the occupation of his homeland.

There is space for him in our heart,

and we lose sleep if tribals refuse

to make way for mines

leaving their forest land.

We have time for messengers of peace,

for strong men of development,

for weak men hankering after nuclear power

and for middlemen talking weaponry.

We lose no sleep when

Ragpickers’ slums are gutted;

the city got cleaned up.

We have discovered a formula

To get rid of poverty.

Recruit the poor in the police force

And get them finished in the jungles of Dantewada

At the hands of the militant poor.

It’s their destiny. There’s nothing

More practical than philosophy.