Values Devalued

Inflated prices for deflated products

Packaged to please the eyes,

The potato wafer packs

Bloat with more air within

Than stuff to fill the stomach.

The one who cant read goes

By the size than the weight pays.

Offers of goods that the heart

Longs for, as bold ads in media hit

The hungry eyes at half the price.

But  hid in small print below

Are  installments and add-ons

That double the price to pay.

The costs rounded off  to the

Nearest higher rupee   benefit

The sellers starve the buyers.

 Trickle to us floods their coffers.

Soft drinks with hard sell on media,

Quench  the thirsty throats of the youth.

 To dehydrate the body and purse

That the rich playing the sports

Grow richer playing a losing game.

Doctors  feel the pulse no more

But the purse close to the heart.

That they may delay cure of

Common cold with  scans and

Specialists, one for each nostril too.

Bury a conscience to bill and build

Corporate hospitals all over.

Parents of a ductile groom seek

A bride broom than a groom,

Hide under sweet words and smiles

The dowry unasked in cash.
But ask masked as ‘decent function’

To feed a thousand and more

And  starve the host for ever.

 Tinsel stars who sold  cosmetics

They never  used, now  sell to

People, parties whose policies

They hardly know. Later

A party in power keeps

Tax men away perhaps.

The mighty powers who pray

In places of worship, promise Him

Not to kill but love their neighbours.

Soon press a button to detonate a nation

Or carry  bricks not to build a temple

But to bathe the nation in blood

That those in power may survive.

 Those with more wealth in hand

Than charity in heart,  dying

In fear of death than love for life,

A hospital to suit status is but

A phone call  away.  A fortune a day

Saved , to be spent on delaying death

With more doctors  around than

Angels waiting above.

 Some people pay a heavy price

 Not only for a product but

 For being fair and honest too.

 Eternally  poor but proud in life,

But rich in heart with peace within.

Blessed with Lord’s love they pray

That they breathe their last in sleep

At home in their late seventies, possibly

On a weekend, in spirit never weakened

That the kith and kin may not lose

A working day.

Values  measured by the paunch

Of the purse or words uttered for

Personal gain than public good,

Will never reach the heart to stay.

When one measures values with heart

It is forever even when one is gone.

Same surname  will come and go,

Only Mahatma in our heart  forever.

~ T S Gopal ~

More Poems By Gopal