The Summit and the Tree

At the ancient Bodhi tree

Troops in khaki pour kerosene

Take out knives and brandish guns

The monks take refuge underground

And pray for karmic justice

The soldiers on Chomolangma

Cannot imagine the ground they stand on

Reduced to a pile of boulders

Edges smoothed by storms and currents

Before the spark on the horizon

Tallest mountain on Earth, no more

So the highest peak would be

K2 instead, in Western hands

Tree of Bodhi Gaya, vanquished

Blasphemy against the One God

A casualty of the Long Jihad

Billions of lives sacrificed

by the generals from the West

Trillions of tons of silver, paid

To China and Travancore and the Iroquois

As reparations for the loss

Of the summit and the holy tree