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Eyes wide shut
In our chauffeured limousine We've viewed the city's best sights Dined at the best restaurants Danced at the most happening club tonight
Behind our 5 star hotel, there's this slum We can't see it from our poolside room We're ensconced in splendid luxury Oblivious to the squalid gloom
Somewhere near us, children sleep By an open drain outside their home The flies are swarming, mosquitoes feast As stray dogs lick their rabid wounds
The parents lost in primeval pursuit Of pleasure where there is none to find He's too drunk to be gentle She, too weak to speak her mind
More children means more hands to work And the mouths that have to be fed? What we can't see shouldn't concern us Switch off the lights and go to bed
They've lived this way forever now And this is how they have to die It's their fate and we can't change it Why should we even want to try?
SWATI CHANDRAN
The Author has copyright © of the poems
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