Long, long ago,
When I was just a little baby,
I remember, life was easy-going,
Because it was a game for me.
I played the whole day long
And learnt many new things.
I enjoyed every moment of my smallness,
I loved the way I laughed and spoke.
I never met the same joy
That had delighted me there.
I miss the way I used to laugh
In the Night Garden.
I loved to listen to the sweet
Melody that used to play there.
There was something pleasant in
The air that I breathed there.
Not Oxygen, it was something else.
It was the fragrance of goodness.
It made the flowers glow.
It made everyone happy.
It dispersed elegance with it.
Everything around was fragrant.
At this new place, the air is polluted
Not just with dust and harmful pollutants,
But harsh words and abuse.
I am forced to breathe this pollution.
I feel a lot of disgust inside me.
Alas! I cannot even close my ears
To stop the deadly words from entering me,
Penetrating through my veins and arteries
And turning my blood into poison.
Oh! I miss a lot - the melody of love, and
The fragrance of goodness that
I used to witness
In the Night Garden.
When I came to this new place
And saw a piece of dirt,
I tried to clean in off,
But then I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
I turned around, and hardly looked ahead
When a fist approached
And punched my face. I felt
Pain for the first time. Argh!
It hurt me so much, I thought,
"Did I do something wrong?". I heard
A voice — "This is my place.
Bother about yours. Let me keep
Mine as I want to keep it.".
I understood. I was punished
For trying to clean someone else's place.
I left immediately for my place,
Where I would build my palace, and
Keep everything clean, as it was
In the Night Garden.
I remember, it used to be bright there.
The trees were enlightened by the energy
Of the light of the sun. They gave fruits
Of taste so sweet, that they overjoyed everyone.
We started to sing and dance along.
Those were the fruits of respect and fraternity.
I don't know it this place ever had them.
This place is dark.
It is hard to spot any bit of brightness.
There are some structures, definitely not trees,
But machines, that give fruits of some kind.
They call them fruits of knowledge,
That are supposed to make them wise.
Yet they remain the biggest fools.
They say there is equality,
Yet they divide the children of nature
On offensive criteria; Some of them
Being the way one worships,
The colour of one's skin,
And the number of pieces of metal,
Or money, as they call it,
Possessed by one.
They claim to be fair,
Yet kill each-other one-by-one.
They sell respect for money,
And hide jealousy in pouches
Made of the fibre of betrayal.
You have to be like them to live here.
You have to use a poisonous tongue to speak here.
You have to forget things
Like trust, love, fraternity, and even goodness.
I realize, there is no hope here
As there used to be
In the Night Garden.
Everywhere around me, I behold
The beasts of satan, secreting
The poisonous potion of hate and badness.
Alas! it is spreading everywhere
Turning lovely creatures into devils in disguise.
They have faces painted with but the colour of
Love and goodness, acting as a membrane
To the evil, cruel and abusive feelings beneath.
I am considered an alien here, a foolish person
Possessing no capabilities needed to survive here.
I have to keep running here and there
To escape the polluted environment,
The poison-yielding mouths of devils,
The punching fists of land-owners.
Oh! I long to go back to the
Place where there there was goodness,
Covered with the essence of true love.
Argh! I wish the angels came
And brought back the species of loving, elegant people.
I wish they defeated
The dominating soul of satan
With the strength of the shining sword
Of Goodness, made up of the pleasant touch of nature
As I felt it nourishing my soul with love
In the Night Garden.
I remember, there were rivers
Where water used to flow.
Everyone used to drink it.
It was itself colourless.
It was the potion of goodness.
The rivers that I see now
Are polluted by harmful things like
Hatred, disgust, and greed.
They even pass the fluid through machines
That makes it devoid of its goodness
And fills it with the poison of badness.
That is what everybody likes to drink.
They call it the act of being modern.
I find a few people like me
Whom they call naïve people.
They are beaten brutally, to give them pain.
They want to convert them into devils.
At times, I was also beaten.
It hurt so much that it filled me with fear.
I feel afraid to move around.
I am scared of trusting or loving anyone.
Perhaps my blood is poisoned.
Perhaps I am becoming one of them.
Oh no! I know this cannot be the end.
I know who will help me. I know her very well.
She will cure me of the poison.
She will purify me.
She will fill me with love and joy again.
She will make everything good and fair again.
Her name is mother nature.
I know where she lives.
She dwells in the soul of every life
In the Night Garden.
The day of doom is coming.
I am her child. I have to
Be strong. I have the power of goodness.
I shall fight the cruel beasts
With my love. I shall transform
The puppets of satan into
The creatures of love. From the minds of the people,
I shall end the feeling of hatred and badness
And give them the knowledge of goodness
To give them real sanity.
I shall make the world devoid of all pain
And fill it with joy.
I know I will do it. My mother is with me.
My strength will not disperse.
My strength cannot fail.
My strength shall make me victorious over everything else.
It shall protect goodness forever.
It shall prevail like the heart of mercury.
The very seed of love and goodness
Protected from all dangers,
Shall be implanted,
With safety,
Guarded by my power,
Forever,
In the Night Garden.
© Param Siddharth 2018.
