Satyapal Anand

24 April 1931 / Chakwal / British India (Pakistan)

Thus Spake The Fish

Thus spake the fish to the dwellers of the deep
Take heed, O brothers
How this, our ocean was once clean
How dirty has it become - a muddy pond!
Wasn't it but a recent event
That gods of heaven and demons of earth
Joined hands to churn it up
In an unholy ‘manthuna'?
Used air blowers to awaken the fire demons asleep in the deep
Fired up a hearth of cascading earthquakes!
Where was the elixir of life -
Indeed where was it?
What they found was poison -
Poison that broke the surface
And now boils and broils all life forms.
Where are the nymphs - my sisters of yore
That played with the waves?

Thus spake the half-dead fish
To the half-dead dwellers of the deep.
Take heed, my friends
We're but dead already.
The demons and gods have used a ruse-
To churn up the ocean
And to turn it into a mud heap.
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