Crying Buddha

Three tears fell to wet the Indian desert on

This grim and horrifying day in May as

People danced in the streets soon after when

The sellers of sweets had a truly big day

And two more tears followed as if to

Lengthen the time of rejoicing somewhat

Tributes to Gandhi the dear Bapu of India

Where reason and non-violence is now

Practiced with the help of splitting atoms.


I, the sinner from a country becoming known

Beyond the very few who have wandered into

The land of the mosques, guns and feudalism

My troubled soul in turbulence now

In the land of the free and the brave but

I fear this deadly power unleashed again

God taking photographs of the poor who

Inhabit the Indian and Pakistani landscape

But own or control the destiny of nothing


In my new fear there is also the absence of

The little joy that the masses of South Asia are

Allowed by the people who control their lives

The makers of these deadly and cruel jokes

On our hunger, our poverty and love of god

Or gods as in the case of the other side who

Today tell us that they have reached nirvana

While sitting under a mushroom cloud

Unable to feel the sadness of a crying Buddha.




This writing gets its title from a Peaceful nuclear test conducted by India in 1974 which attracted the nickname Smiling Buddha or the term The Buddha has Smiled. The recent series of five tests have been named Shakti but maybe Crying Buddha would be a more fitting label