Words’ Worth

They made some guns in their backyards,

As they thought war was on the cards!

How much destruction a gun could cause,

They knew, and hence decided to pause!

All the guns lay in the dark corner of the godown,

As no war broke and it was a peaceful town!

The gun had weight and colour, shape and form,

Waiting to be used along with an atom bomb!

Elsewhere on the muddy earth there was peace,

As war and turbulence had just ceased!

People were busy making useful products for all,

Clothes and bed, sweater and shawl!

All that were produced were sent to central hall,

But remained undisturbed until fall!

The kindness of human heart toiled very hard,

Only to be stored in the words of a bard!

The gun was powerless and kindness useless,

As the produce of human work lay in mess!

“Fire,” shouted a military general on a fine day,

And the wicked guns made the humans pay!

They knew not the power of a single word!

They knew not the power of the single word uttered,

As they saw the city, wasted and war-battered!

“Distribute,” screamed some kind-hearted state heads,

Out came sweater and shawls, clothes and beds!

Again the formless, shapeless, weightless word had won,

Causing and curing the hurt that it had spun!

A single word’s worth is unknown until it is spoken,

It has the power to break and mend the broken!

A word can destroy what took ages to make and build,

Leaving the pretty earth shattered and nulled!

One word can heal years of enmity and feeling of hatred,

Making a new path for the relationship to tread!