What is courage?
Is it sweet or bitter?
Claiming you as a
Companion in the crowd,
Wearing the pride of being
A “very good friend",
Like a honeycomb in your hand.
But at the end
It turns into a hollow box.
Betrayed by the same
For the sake of pride,
It feels like a pungent smell.
In the name of peace,
They burned the hands
That weaves the threads
Like a spider spinning its web.
Across the water
They double the tariffs,
Starving the people
Who lives from the export of shrimp.
It is a butterfly
Tasting a flower
Then fly away.
Sharing the nectar
In the name of friendship,
Yet burned for the fuel
Who runs our homes —
Even though they too
Hold the same chemicals.
So is this our courage,
To still believe
In a better world
and turn foes into friends?
They fly high on their own,
But on the odds everything adds up,
like a flower blooming on stone.
As the East combines,
New trains are found,
New technologies joined,
Like clouds over deserts
Erasing another’s thirst.
So courage -
Is it sweet or bitter?
- Ray Moonee
-
Author:
Ray Moonee (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: September 13th, 2025 12:39
- Comment from author about the poem: Howdy India – A poem on the paradox of diplomacy. In recent years, relations between powerful nations like the United States and India have been marked by a public show of friendship — leaders attending each other’s rallies, speaking of peace and cooperation — while, at the same time, trade tensions and tariffs on key exports such as shrimp, textiles and steel have hurt workers and small producers. This double image of warmth on stage and pressure behind the scenes inspired my poem “Howdy India.” Through images of honeycombs turning hollow, weavers’ hands being burned, and butterflies taking nectar then flying away, the poem questions whether it is still an act of courage to keep believing in better partnerships and to try turning foes into friends when global politics so often breaks its promises.
- Category: Sociopolitical
- Views: 9
- Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett
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Comments1
Politicians here today gone tomorrow and treaties the same. A treaty only as good as paper, as the Native American found out, are burned, ignored, twisted wadded upa nd thrown away. A beautiful write about the deception and two faced betrayal of international politics. A fave
Absolutely right. Thanks
You are most welcome
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