As the death toll due to Covid19 mounts, peo­ple are throw­ing up arms be­fore God, seek­ing com­pas­sion and so­lace. There seems a be a dead-end and hu­mankind is at its wit’s end. Politi­cians, states­men, re­li­gious au­thor­i­ties are all at sea.  A com­pas­sion­ate lady, known for as­sist­ing the poor, ail­ing and the aged, Kavita Ja­ma­tia im­plores God for help in this poem which spells out the mal­adies that have come along with Coro­n­avirus to the masses.

ITHINK COVID19 IS A TEST­ING TIME FOR HU­MAN­ITY. I am wor­ried about in­creas­ing sui­cides and seek God’s com­pas­sion to over­come the tra­vails of this pan­demic. I ap­peal to fel­low hu­man be­ings to be be­nign and fair. Here is my prayer to God and his peo­ple:

The world seems de­feated by Covid-19 pan­demic
Schools and col­lege are de­void of work aca­d­e­mic
Thou­sands of poor peo­ple have died of hunger
Through the pan­demic, is God show­ing anger?

Hunger leads labour­ers to com­mit sui­cide
It’s hap­pen­ing in the world, all four sides
Theft, gam­bling and crime in­crease in so­ci­ety
As there is no work in the vil­lage or the city. 

Sus­pected cases kept un­der quar­an­tine
Hard to con­trol as many in their teens
The whole world is un­der a Lock­down
Hopes and dreams have bro­ken down. 

No one un­der­stands the su­per­pow­er’s pol­icy
For in­no­cent peo­ple, there is no love and mercy
What are their plan, scheme and pur­pose?
Play­ing with lives suf­fer­ing from Coro­n­avirus. 

Pan­demics break­out once in 100 years
Nat­ural or ar­ti­fi­cial virus, peo­ple no longer bear
Crops and green­ery de­stroyed by a lo­cust swarm
Food, se­cu­rity and liveli­hood are on harm.

It’s a dusky, dark, doom and gloomy year of 2020
Every­thing and every­one faces ex­treme scarcity
Fear is that this may bring the big famine
Then, who will be fair and who will be mean!!

Thou­sands of poor peo­ple will die from star­va­tion
The State must take im­me­di­ate pre­ven­tive ac­tion
Oh God! show mercy, love and care
Oh, Hu­mans! let us be equal and fair.

Kavita Ja­ma­tia is a re­tired school head­mistress and so­cial ac­tivist, en­gaged with the Borok Wom­en’s Fo­rum for wom­en’s rights, lan­guage, cul­tural and land rights of the in­dige­nous peo­ples of Tripura. She has par­tic­i­pated in re­gional, na­tional and in­ter­na­tional so­cial, cul­tural and hu­man rights meets.