EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST

EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST


‘East is East and West is West’,
So said Rudyard Kipling.
He did have reason to say
Such an obvious thing.

Saying so, he probably
Admitted this one fact:
Culture and religion will
Ever remain intact.

Whenever the West tried to
Suppress the Orient,
It had to retreat somehow,
With reason to repent.

Whether China or India,
Iraq, Afghanistan,
It had to quit, even, the
Country called Vietnam.

One wonders why self-proclaimed
Human rights champions
Justify evil designs
To win Eastern nations.

Why can’t they confine themselves
To their respective shores?
Why inside other countries,
They must extend their chores?

Is it the Gospel or oil
That sets them on their course--
To be spread or to be grabbed,
By guile or brutal force?



* Rudyard Kipling’s The Ballad of the East and West: Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently ...
www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/1457/poem3.htm

* Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format


M C Gupta
10 October 2004

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