The Fountain Pen or Quill

 

When creation took place the world was without frontiers,

no borders existed except those which were natural.

Mountain ranges, rivers and the oceans separated the peoples,

each developed its own language and culture and traditions.

Then came man determined to carve out his lot,

on crude maps he delineated borders with his pen.

Territories became separate lands or nation states,

given names and with a new identtity imposed on them.

This was the beginning of enmity, greed and conquest,

times of colonisation and futile wars where the innocent suffered.

Nation states were born and survive to this day,

but the pen cut boundaries through lands separating peoples.

Colonial powers imposed their languages, traditions and cultures,

rejecting all that had existed before to the exclusion of all.

People were subjugated and robbed of their identity,

made to feel as if they were intellectually inferior.

Little was achieved by this enterprise as today we witness calamity,

wars, disputes, resentment and revolution.

We were given a paradise to inhabit and enjoy,

but we have disfigured it by greed and a sense of superiority.

Surrounded by incomparable beauty, rich in its own diversity,

we have disfigured a precious gift and now pay a high price.