Black Sands

(Dahanu - 26/12/2022) 

I've seen these

Black sands

So many times before, 

But it never bothered me. 

I always found them unusual, 

Maybe even a bit macabre. 

But today, it unnerved my

Hygienic sensibilities, 

As I found them embedded

Deep inside my child's nails, 

Tainting his feet and knees, 

Making me want to pull

Him far away from this

Horrendous atrocity

That covered his clothes. 

I yelled at him, scolded

And threatened, but a child

Knows no difference

Between what is black and golden. 

'You look like a puppy

Who swam in a gutter, '

I said, to find him roaring

With laughter instead. 

At dinner between fish and prawns,

And wine and brandy, we talk about

Goodness and truth and what's right

And wrong, about morals and ethics

Fancy words that make us different

From the ones who are devious and deranged. 

Till someone exclaims, 'If you do wrong, 

Your conscience will let you know. '

I cannot stay quiet anymore. 

I talk about the ones born

In poverty and strife, 

Sons of murderers, 

Daughters of rapists, 

Left to rot and asked to survive. 

I say the very cliched things, 

I find myself shudder to remember. 

That life isn't black and white, 

It is a painting with shades of grey. 

That we are what we experience, 

Our conscience isn't always

Governed by Gods and books. 

Sometimes people do what they

Think is right for them, 

Sometimes all one can do is survive. 

I think of the words I said before. 

'Puppy who swam in a gutter'

And suddenly nothing's funny anymore. 

No one deserves to be in a gutter,

Neither a puppy nor a human for sure. 

I think of the black sands on the shore, 

I realise our prejudices are born

Only out of what we know. 

We are all islands in the sea, 

Unaware, unconnected, untouchable, 

And yet we proclaim so loudly

To be like leaves in a tree. 

The truth is we do not see,

What the other one sees. 

Everything falls flat on its face,

All the words seem phony and fake. 

Everyone seems to be living a lie, 

No one seems to be getting it right. 

At times like these, I understand

That nothing really matters

Than trying to understand. 

Whether it's wrong or right, 

Whether it's black or white.

All one has to do is try

To understand what the other

Feels, believes or knows. 

All one has to do is try. 

All one has to do is unknow.