Let Ourselves Prevail

“Where the mind is without fear” and whistleblowers roam free
Prisons abolished; die with them, values all reactionary
Where the world exults in differences, amidst sheer diversity
Supremacism ends; cease with it, any collective adversity

Where ideas spring from challenged truths, broken promises
Perfection wound up; sought after no more are divine images
Where faith is exposed as a hopeless quest, of oppressed states
Reason, power and strength too seen as elite privileged quests     

Where rape no longer a metaphor, nor millionaires act commoners
Celebrities awaken the conscience, not profiteers, accumulators 
Where the admired do not endorse wars, nor dwell in charities 
Corporate czars get caught faking empathies, moralist vanities

Where the homeless are not recruited to clean nuclear mess
Working class emphatically organize, not rescued under duress
Where marginalized empowered, seeking no solace in a pope
Into such a year of radical possibilities, immense in its scope

To undo, to unlearn, to find right here – both heaven and the hell
To end holy patriarchies and capitalism, let ourselves prevail.

– Saswat Pattanayak, peoples’ poet.

(the above verse is inspired by Tagore’s poem in Gitanjali).