‘I’ …..They say,

Never stoops down to ‘i’,

But no one can tell you

How come, and why

The stiff-necked ostrich,

The self-styled king

Forever looks down upon,

Each of its fellow-being

Saddam, Hitler, Mussolini,

Leaders of the creed,

They all swear allegiance

To a tribe, this ‘I’ does breed.

I wonder who the scholar,

What vanity, what pride!

With one stroke of pen

That changed Time’s stride.

And writ on history’s page

Blood-shed, envy and rage

Wish! There comes another one

To raise his pen twice,

To show this ‘I’ its proper place

And cut it down to size.

Narinder Jit Kaur is a retired Associate Professor from Patiala, who taught English Literature for 31 years in various Government Colleges of Punjab. A writer and a translator, she has five books of translations, from Punjabi into English, to her credit including Voices in the Back Courtyard(Rupa & Co.) -an anthology of short-stories by Punjabi Women Writers. She writes articles, poems and short-stories in English, Punjabi and Hindi. You can read more from her on narinderjit.com