The Noble Truth

. . . let's create a new generation.

– Hafiz

Leaders big and small set no good

Examples when they arm the youth

With sticks and bombs, crying for the

Wheels of economy to grind to a halt.

Traders landing at the airport hop

On the return flight out of town

While toddlers cry themselves to

Sleep on the floor for want of food.

The backpacked schoolboy waits

For hours in vain for the bus and

The old grandmother fleeing the city

In a baby taxi is blown to bits.

When the fox guards the hencoop

Hell will break loose for the fowls

Will croak, and the coop will shake

From the frenzied fluttering of wings.

The affairs of the state must not rest

In the hands of fools and knaves for

When fools the councils dominate,

The wise will always keep away,

Leaving the state in tatters, meritless

In policy, and the people suffer misery.

So cast out the old, ring in the new,

Eschew the evil, embrace the good.

Open the streets, open the schools,

Open the minds for the noble truth,

To light the road to the cherished goal:

Peace and progress in every household.

Ronny Noor is an English professor at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, U.S.A. He is also the author of Snake Dance in Berlin, Slice of Heaven and Other Essays, and Where Heaven Spreads Wide & Other Stories.