Not in Vain

Not in Vain

By Rajul Tiwari

Born hearts pure and loving,
the hearts beating and hurting...
Bit by bit time unleashes the truth,
a battered childhood, a lost youth...

School shows them a fake world,

the image seemed all tangled and curled...
Smelly shacks were home to them,
stories about alien land, not known to them...

Morals were limited to earning breads,
study was limited to counting heads...
Still school was a place of rest,
the struggle went blank here, for best...

Dumb eyed, uncared and needy,
fell into the hands of cruel and greedy...
So school time is spent wandering on red-lights,
begging, torting, and haunting the sights...

They could touch the cars, they would never sit in,
get newer clothes in grants which would never fit in...
Happiness was holding coins, would fight for the fallen one,
ecstasy was basking in rainwater pools and winter sun...

They would pick bits of pizzas freshly thrown,
to have a bite of the richer world, each would want it alone...
They laughed at the boy crying inside the car, for the toy,
thinking that this is the new way of "these people" to express joy...

Tired, they would sit in union to eat once at night,
no mess, no rebukes, no fight...
They would sleep together on bare land,
without father's help, without mother's hand...

One who had family was also taken as rich,
at least they wouldn't be called born to a bitch...
Those were lucky who would read number plates,
they could manage a house job and princely playmates..

And the poorest still lived with the smiles,
prone to wounds but painlessly walks miles...
Nothing to lose, nothing to gain,
he made others feel better, he too is but not in vain...