A prayer
If I could transform the Sahara to sugar cane
and give some of it to the Jews
and some to the Palestinians ...
so they might not kill.
If I could take the ice of Siberia
and make it hum with life
and give some of it to every landless person
in this sad world
so that no absent owner might steal a roof ...
If I could take some of the Kalahari and make it green
so that despots would be less free with my enterprises ...
If I could make a little of the Atlantic land
and give some of it to Irish Catholics
and to Irish Protestants,
to Rwandans, Congolese and Sudanese,
to Tamils, Singhalese,
to Hindus and Muslims,
so that bomb will not lacerate child
and no vital, vigorous person will be
paralysed ...
If I could give a little bit of the Pacific to the Americans
to fight in among themselves
so that they might stay away from Vietnam, Grenada, Afghanistan
and Iraq ...
If I could teach the Russians that they have enough land
and did not need to invade Hungary or Czechoslovakia
or Afghanistan ...
If I could teach man to be satisfied with God's bounty and
not to steal ...
If I could teach man that there is no happiness
in another person's unhappiness
or life in another's death ...
If I could teach man not to strangle our beautiful Earth
with his progeny
and annihilate other species ...
If I could teach man that religion cannot mean Hate
and that arrogance is merely a symptom of decay and doom ...
If only,
O Lord!
If only!
First written on Deepavali Day 1983
Updated 24 June 2006