Why Not Love?

a poem by John Arul Prakash S

This I do not understand:
Why would a war happen
If only our leaders would think
More humanly?
Why honour?
Why deceit?
Why politics?
Why arms?
Why money?
Why not love?
Why the drive to give
One’s death under guise
Of giving one’s own life
Just to cause death
On the other side?
Why look at a terrorist
When you can look at
A sleeping child?
Why borders?
Why leaders?
Why not humanity?
Are the wills and whims
Of a select few, so rich
Or powerful they may be,
Really important?
Are nations and their petty struggles
Really needed?
Why self-extermination of
One’s own species?
Why should misguided hearts
Misguide the mind?
Why does loss of life come
With loss of clarity
Of thought and reason?
Why bets?
Why dares?
Why the need to prove oneself?
Am I any less
Because he says so?
Should I kill him for it?
Why are we so self righteous?
Hatred is amazing in that it
Grows by pretending
To kill itself.
One hates, to destroy another
Who hates him.
Hate not to kill hatred.
Hatred is not a solution
To it’s own problem.
Think not of self
Always.
Love is the answer.
Why not love?
Think as a child would,
Soft and tender.
May be then Earth
Would be a true Paradise.
However,
With doomed presentiment,
I might guess, if there was
One animal species on Earth,
That drove itself to extinction,
It would be us.
That day,
We’ll ultimately rue it, and say:
“We evolved upward in mind,
But downward in heart.
Why didn’t we love?
This we do not understand.”