EYE  FROM  EYE

                   Peering in the mirror we both,

              we think we are not two, but four,

              and mirror after mirror after mirror,

              opposite of eachother

                            standing far far and near,

              we create and procreate

              what we call a population.

              And then ...

              we make it our full-time occupation

              to look for names to separate

              the forms from forms that

              we only conceived;

              not uniting, but creating distinctions,

              even beyond distinctions

              of race and caste, and then

              even sub-caste of a sub-caste,

              which creates nothing, but distraction.

              Soon the woes and troubles mount,

              we gather our privileges and our rights,

              as reflections (us) with reflections fight,

              and without a speck of inner reflection

              we feel  a sense of  deep  satisfaction,

              as we look around and find

              in 'our' mirror

              someone to look down and blame

              for an irritation here,

              a cold sensation there,

              or, for a crooked unkind expression,

              that bounces from a mirror to mirror,

              then to us the whole world, it is clear,

              sounds like a non-rythmic beat of

              millions and billions of hearts that are

              beating out of synchronization.

              Desperate, we fret, and clamor for peace

              between us and the hopeless uncertainty

              that seems like it is spread

                                far away from here to eternity,

              and it is interesting, we form what we call

              The United Nations

              to recognize the lines of demarcation

              in a no-man's land,

              to bring peace between man and man, 

              when all we had to do was, for sure,

              to remove the mirror  that obscures

              eye from eye,

              and I from I.

                                  -------

                                                      --  Vijay Nikore

              (original and unpublished)