Keeping a Safe Distance

When the saffron Sun is safely

Away in the distant firmament,

It brings warmth to seed, leaf, creatures;

But when it rises to the high noon,

It turns belligerent. And then seed, leaf,

Creature are in peril of being

Incinerated corpses of Nature.

This must be why the Apollonian god

Cocooned the various blue Earth

In a dense Atmosphere of pluralist

Particles, forming a preservative skein

That keeps seed, leaf, creature

From being too fatally near

The Dionysian rage of the unbridled

Sun out to burn all that stands

In its way, as if to emphasise

Its all-consuming sway.

This must be the reason why in

One holy book it is said that

Doom is the day when the feckless

Sun will descend three feet from

The tallst head, and char all

Seed, leaf, creature dead.

Let not, therefore, the Atmosphere

Of pluralist particles be so wholly

Rent as to let the benign

Of the distant sun turn devouring

Demon. The blue Earth may not withstand

Its depredations unless myriad conglomerates

Of the tiniest particles be nursed by a grand

Coalition of seed, leaf, creature that make

Up livable, caring nation-states.

Badri Raina