Millions of babies watching the skies Bellies swollen, with big round eyes On Jessore Road--long bamboo huts Noplace to shit but sand channel ruts Millions of fathers in rain Millions of mothers in pain Millions of brothers in woe Millions of sisters nowhere to go One Million aunts are dying for bread One Million uncles lamenting the dead Grandfather millions homeless and sad Grandmother millions silently mad Millions of daughters walk in the mud Millions of children wash in the flood Million girls !omit " groan Millions of families hopeless alone Millions of souls nineteense!entyone nineteense!entyone homeless on Jessore road under grey sun million are dead, the million who can #alk toward $alcutta from %ast &akistan 'a(i )eptember along Jessore Road O(cart skeletons drag charcoal load past watery fields fields thru rain flood ruts *ung cakes on treetrunks, plastic-roof huts
#et processions +amilies walk )tunted boys big heads dont talk ook bony skulls " silent round eyes )tar!ing black angels in human disguise Mother s.uats weeping " points to her sons )tanding thin legged like elderly nuns small bodied hands to their mouths in prayer +i!e months small food since they settled there on one floor mat with small empty pot +ather lifts up his hands at their lot 'ears come to their mothers eye &ain makes mother Maya cry 'wo children together in palmroof shade )tare at me no word is said Rice ration, lentils one time a week Milk powder for warweary infants meek No !egetable money money or work for the man man Rice lasts four days eat while they can 'hen children star!e three days in a row and !omit their ne(t food unless they eat slow/ On Jessore road Mother wept at my knees Bengali tongue cried mister &lease 0dentity card torn up on the floor 1usband still waits at the camp office door Baby at play 0 was washing the flood Now they wont gi!e gi!e us any more food 'he pieces are here in my celluloid purse 0nnocent baby play our death curse
'wo policemen surrounded by thousands of boys $rowded waiting their daily bread 2oys $arry big whistles " long bamboo sticks to whack them in line 'hey play hungry tricks Breaking the line and 2umping in front 0nto the circle sneaks one skinny runt 'wo brothers dance forward on the mud stage 'eh gaurds blow their whistles " chase them in rage #hy are these infants massed in this place aughing in play " pushing for space #hy do they wait here so cheerful " dread #hy this is the 1ouse where they gi!e children bread 'he man in the the bread door $ries " comes comes out 'housands of boys and girls 'ake up his shout 0s it 2oy3 is it prayer3 4No more bread today4 'housands of $hildren at once once scream scream 41ooray54 41ooray54 Run home to tents where elders await Messenger children with bread from the state No bread more today5 today5 " and no place to s.uat &ainful baby, sick shit he has got/ Malnutrition skulls thousands for months *ysentery drains bowels all at once Nurse shows disease disease card %nterostrep )uspension is wanting or else chlorostrep Refugee camps in hospital shacks Newborn lay naked naked on mothers thin laps Monkeysi6ed week old Rheumatic babe eye Gastoenteritis Blood &oison thousands must die
)eptember Jessore Road rickshaw 78,888 souls in one camp 0 saw Rows of bamboo huts in the flood Open drains, " wet families waiting for food Border trucks flooded, food cant get past, merican ngel machine please come fast5 #here is mbassador Bunker today3 re his 1elios machinegunning children at play3 #here are the helicopters of 9/)/ 0*3 )muggling dope in Bangkoks green shade/ #here is mericas ir +orce of ight3 Bombing North aos all day and all night3 #here are the &residents rmies of Gold3 Billionaire Na!ies merciful Bold3 Bringing us medicine food and relief3 Napalming North :iet :iet Nam and causing more more grief3 #here are our tears3 #ho weeps for the pain3 pain3 #here can these families go in the rain3 Jessore Roads children close their big eyes #here will we sleep when Our +ather dies3 #hom shall we pray to for rice and for care3 #ho can bring bread to this shit flood fould lair3 Millions of children alone in the rain5 Millions of children weeping in pain5 Ring O ye tongues of the world for their woe Ring out ye !oices for o!e we dont know Ring out ye bells of electrical pain Ring in the conscious of merica brain
1ow many children are we who are lost #hose are these daughters we see turn to ghost3 #hat are our souls that we ha!e lost care3 Ring out ye musics and weep if you dare-$ries in the mud by the thatchd house sand drain )leeps in huge pipes in the wet shit-field rain waits by the pump well, #oe to the world5 whose children still star!e in their mothers arms curled/ 0s this what 0 did to myself in the past3 #hat shall 0 do )unil &oet 0 asked3 Mo!e on and lea!e them without any coins3 #hat should 0 care for the lo!e of my loins3 #hat should we care for our cities and cars3 #hat shall we buy with our +ood )tamps on Mars3 1ow many millions sit down in New ;ork " sup this nights table on bone " roast pork3 1ow many millions of beer cans are tossed in Oceans of Mother3 1ow much does )he cost3 $igar gasolines and asphalt car dreams )tinking the world and dimming star beams-+inish the war in your breast with a sigh $ome tast the tears in your own 1uman eye &ity us millions of phantoms you see )tar!ed in )amsara on planet ': 1ow many millions of children die more before our Good Mothers percei!e percei!e the Great Great ord3 1ow many good fathers pay ta( to rebuild rmed forces that boast the children they!e killed3
1ow many souls walk through Maya in pain 1ow many babes in illusory pain3 1ow many families hollow eyed lost3 1ow many grandmothers turning to ghost3 1ow many lo!es who ne!er get bread3 1ow many unts with holes in their head3 1ow many sisters skulls on the ground3 1ow many grandfathers make no more sound3 1ow many fathers in woe 1ow many sons nowhere to go3 1ow many daughters nothing to eat3 1ow many uncles with swollen sick feet3 Millions of babies in pain Millions of mothers in rain Millions of brothers in woe Millions of children nowhere to go New York, November 14-16, 1971
