Come, let’s watch the skies,
On this giant telescope
Let’s see
How beautiful the stars, the moon
the planets, the jupiter ring look like
Let’s watch the universe
As another undiscovered phenomena
Another undiscovered story unfolds,
Today, tomorrow and forever,
Until we find
Where that earth like earth exists
Far away,
Out of our reach
Until we find
How the people on the farther earth look like,
How poor they are,
How children die of hunger around dirty smelly gutters
How mothers cry tears of blood, abuse and rape
How fathers kill themselves or
Their families in the name of shame
Let’s truly watch that far earth
Only to feel or pretend
That the poverty, the hunger, the famine,
and the homeless
That lie around us as we watch
Are far richer
Compared to that farther earth-
The earth that we have never discovered,
The earth that we may never discover.
Written in solidarity with fellow Indians: The numerous children, women, and men who die each year if not biologically then psychologically out of poverty. Yet, India puts billions of dollars in space programmes and most recently into the development of an astronomical telescope.
Sumeet Grover
Sumeet Grover is the founder of Global Poetry, dedicated to creativity, human dignity, dialogue and global citizenship. He is a winner of the Portico Brotherton Open Poetry Prize 2014 and was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize in 2014 & 2015. He has authored three books of poetry: Signals (2017), House Arrest & Disobedience (2015) and Change (2011). Grover is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment.