People Once Lived Here: Manoj Murmu

 People Once Lived Here

 When everything gets reduced to maps,

every mountain, every forest, every river,

and the soil carries

just a file number,

then where will you keep

your dreams?

When fields belong to corporations,

when even air is taxed,

and every drop of water

is trapped inside branded bottles,

then where will

thirsty hearts find peace?

We learned from trees

how to stand strong,

from rivers how to keep flowing,

and from the earth

how to stay human.

But when the land itself

is no longer ours,

then what will we become?

Then maybe,

you and I

will meet in the corner of a page,

like a margin note,

where it will be written:

“People once lived here.”

---

✍️ Manoj Murmu

 Talbariya, Barhait

Sahibganj, Jharkhand

Email: manojask143@gmail.com

Newer Post Older Post