My HSS(1st Sem) Term Paper

The Orphanage

A huge place all around me,
With pale walls and paler faces do I see;
To those who can't just follow the page,
Yet can't break out of this vile place,
This certainly is a cage, this orphanage.

I see them in the morning, wear,
What they got as their own share;
Dirty and stained, crumpled and torn,
They always wear it, night or morn.

They dare not even show the shame,
That I find in lifeless eyes, and drooping chin;
Out of their fear the same, here shame has no name.

Day in, day out, I see them eat and drink
Just the same thing every day,
Fill the stomach to the brink,
And quench the thirst with a drink;
Fixed time and fixed share,
And of course, a fixed fare.

They dare not even show the shame,
That I find in lifeless eyes, and drooping chin;
Out of their fear the same, here shame has no name.

Till the land, or fish in the river,
Play with acids, or be a bard;
You will be paid only by need,
Just enough food to your body feed,
The same old cloth by the same old yard;
For here talent and work are no measure,
And you work, not to eat, but for its own sake
For all leisure is no leisure,
And if naught else is, you are at stake.

They dare not even show the shame,
That I find in lifeless eyes, and drooping chin;
Out of their fear the same, here shame has no name.

Even when free, a rare case,
When all required is done and said,
No man here has lifted head,
Looked in a mirror, at another face,
Or up at the sky, and even beyond,
Be it clouded and gray, or blue and clear,
Blinding sun, or a gentle moon so fond;
None has wished in awe and fear,
To follow the birds, and learn to fly;
Here minds starve, while bodies are fed,
And humanity weeps, but no tears are shed.

They dare not even show the shame,
That I find in lifeless eyes, and drooping chin;
Out of their fear the same, here shame has no name.

Here I find no sadness, nor a crumb of joy,

Sadness, brings you the facts to accept

Yet how can they open a secret so long kept?
When here we find nothing to enjoy,
Then how may one joy, expect?
Brief are both, life and death, despair and joy,
Then, how the one when the other has slept?

They dare not even show the shame,
That I find in lifeless eyes, and drooping chin;
Out of their fear the same, here shame has no name.

Things unearned, give no pleasure,
For these are things you get for free,
That someone obtained, without leisure,
And based on need lost to me.

Then why this business of giving away,
Or taking what isn't yours by right?
Why not change, and accept change?
Why not give and take, or buy and sell?

I feel very strange, when I find
Such thoughts rushing through my mind;
With hand, and foot, and bearded face,
I wish this were a marketplace.

For there you find, the true essence,
Each one seen is the one of its kind,
All men with a common sense,
The wish to work, not just to work,
But also to earn, to the fullest measure,
And using that buy, fruit of another's work,
For then does it bring the truest pleasure.

Neither here has shame a name,
For all heads here are held high,
They earn and spend, and aspire to fly.

When I was born, on a Sunday long ago,
I gave you pleasure, and I gave you pain,
You gave me the blood that in my veins does flow,
You gave me the life that powers my brain;
When you died, as all must, one day far or near,
You gave up to me the troubles life brings,
And all that we held dear in this world here,
And in return got, before you had to go
Knowledge that someone will still know,
What you from childhood knew,
And a pass, that you used from here to go,
On the adventure that death always brings;
If such be the life's pattern, in birth and death,
Then why not so during our stay here?
Why take what is not ours in truth,
Or refrain from demanding our full share?

Why share things based on need?
Why not earn your own keep?

Why this business of giving away,
Or taking what isn't yours by right?
Why not change, and accept change?
Why not give and take, or buy and sell?