As if two world wars were not enough

to ponder on who we really are

after we fling a gaze at the stark ashes

that stare us in the face from a delusion

that a war could be waged —

a war that would end all wars!

We come face to face today with a world war

of another kind, a war within our collective self,

and we have begun to run, run, run the race

against time to find the elusive cure to inoculate us

against the unseen enemy within.

We clutch at straws to survive the final fatal blow

that strikes at anyone at random — young or old,

rich or poor any time, any place,

the tentacles of globalisation now truly

manifesting outreach to the ends of the earth.

We can’t afford to look away from the call

for a global cease fire, because a more pressing threat

to our earthly survival confronts us,

and deep down we tremble at the thought

of the uncertainty of life that has befallen us all:

what on earth is the new ‘normal’?

Our impaired vision borne out of pride

has shattered the borders we have constructed

against each other, and the time has finally arrived

for us to nod and acknowledge the entwined

web of our destiny, and heed the call

from the mystical abyss to draw the archetypal curtains,

open our eyes, see the broader horizon awaiting us,

sing at last from the same song sheet, and walk together

to recover a paradise lost.