The Plan
First Published in Kindle Magazine
Have we planned enough for the year ahead?
The terrorizing wars, conflicts, military bloodshed
Zionist lobbies, hawkish Hindus, Islamic fanatics
Have we planned enough to defeat Christian clerics?
Have we planned at all for the impending poverty?
Or a few billionaires controlling all earthly property
Forty million refugees, can’t call a region their own
Have we planned at all for the homeless population?
Have we planned well to tackle global illiteracy?
For more than a billion, education still a fantasy
Eighty percent of world survives for ten dollars a day
Have we planned well to end the class society next May?
Have we planned any to read beyond headlines?
Of Obama’s hopes as wars on Afghans, Pakistanis
Saving global capitalism as the onslaughts on poorest
Have we planned any to abuse our illusions at best?
Have we planned somehow to stop funding hate?
To end Israreli occupations before its way too late
American troops, Blackwater mercenaries, Halliburton Oils
Have we planned somehow to block capitalistic turmoils?
Have we planned steps to care for the unattended sick?
Four billion sans drinking water, yet more uninsured weak
Private healthcare preferring profit over public concerns
Have we planned steps to replace the pharma corporations?
Have we planned yet to support unions and labor forces?
The peaceniks, communists, lovers and freedom sources
In solidarity with Zapatistas, the Naxalites, and our landless
Have we planned yet to ally with these progressive classes?
Have we planned ever in view of our future generations?
How to organize and educate the current media consumers
Before the majority among us is deceived again this new year
Have we planned ever to herald a new world, freed from fear?
Have we planned ways to restore lasting peace on Mother Earth?
Not to imagine battles, occupations, business interests’ wrath
Uniting indigenous, workers, spreading words against wars
Have we planned ways to consolidate workers, not corporate class?
By Saswat Pattanayak, Peoples’ Poet, 2008
