BY MAHIMA SHARMA

 

Oh Mom…why is the school shut?

I want to go and meet my friends.

Oh Mom…why is the school shut?

We had a fancy dress today.

 

Darling daughter, understand the situation,

Your school is closed down owing to heavy pollution!

But Mom, I don’t want a ‘Pollution Vacation’

Look X-mas is coming, time for shopping & celebration?

 

No Little sister, we can’t go out

Can’t your eyes feel the burning sensation?

Can’t you see the trees falling?

Look there…the burnt leaves lying?

Can’t you see the sky, that is yellow with smoke?

And that suffocation…is leaving no hope,

Thus, dear Sister, we have to stay home…

Or we have to wear that black mask for you to roam!

But Brother, I can’t breathe easy with that task!

Take me back to our previous city,

Where I could see the sky that was blue,

Take me back to the city,

Where the Moon brightened the sky with its Silver hue!

 

No Dear Sister, past is past…

We can’t go back and it leaves me aghast!

But Dear brother, the future is dark and deep,

Yes dear Sister, but worse is our elders’ mind collusion,

I wonder why can’t they find this problem’s solution?

Thus my Sister, we are on a ‘Pollution Vacation.’

 

So may be dear Sister, lets plant a tree…

Coz my teacher told me – it will help us breath free.

Mom will you join us…why are you in tears?

Won’t this little effort ward off your fears?

Come Dad join us, why are you staring at me?

Won’t you help Save Earth, to help us breathe free?

 

Dad, perhaps you should have brought a smaller car,

Wouldn’t that have taken you equally far?

Oh Dad, do I see your head hung in shame?

Ah don’t worry, just undo a few things…to change the game

And you won’t get the blame.

Call out your friends…let more trees be planted,

To SAVE Mother Earth, we can’t take HER for granted.

You have to provide us environs that are clean,

Only you elders can do this by LIVING GREEN!

So, dear Mom & Dad lets unite for a solution,

Coz next year I don’t want a ‘Pollution Vacation.’

Copyright: Mahima Sharma 

The Author is an Independent Journalist & Ex-Senior Journalist with CNN-News 18, ANI (a collaboration with Reuters). An 8-year-old’s painting inspired this poem along with a conversation between two children below the age of 7 in New Delhi, India.