Poetry

AFP photo

By

Ashish Kumar Pathak

Venezuelan blackout tempers

The schools are suspended,

food rotting in the shops,

homes suffering from lack of water,

cell phones without reception,

The food we had in our refrigerators

has spoiled,

The leadership we have today

has gone wild to mild,

businesses are closed,

boilers not working,

there’s no communication,

only commotions and altercations,

no country can bear hours

without electricity,

we need to help one another,

we need help from others,

we are humans in a human made crisis

save us anyhow we are in humanitarian crisis

we have become easy with the situation,

can’t we together get back our nation?

This Venezuelan Sin Luz

Once one of the most prosperous Latino

has now watched its economy collapse

due to oil overuse, mismanagement

and corruption galore,

leaving people starving and without medicine,

millions fled on foot,

economic crisis spawned into more livid

political crisis,

fence-sitter nations sided with one chaos or other,

no son of the soil or oil in complete control,

now subway services get stopped

now and then,

city streets lit now only by car headlights,

failed traffic lights leading unending jams,

signalling collapse of electric system

together with economic and political,

actuals and intellectuals should come

plan, prepare and prioritise each needy step,

One step at a time with national unity

will make Venezuela jewel of the Latina again

it would be gain of the humanity

and gain for the world.

Ashish Kumar Pathak

Ashish Kumar Pathak is a middle school teacher posted in the Munger district of Bihar province (India). He has a letter of appreciation from the President of India for his poem. Recently his works of poetry have been featured in many national and international anthologies.