We Would Share Poem by HARVENDRA SINGH

We would share full-punnet of flour to our needy neighbours
Although we ourselves left nothing for the morrow
We used to offer all the little milk we had
To the poor baby who had been hungry
Sometimes we would ransack our earthen containers
And find one or two handful of rice
To give to the begger standing at our gate
And in exchange we would get a flicker of smile
The fruits from our guava trees
Were distributed among all our neighbours
We would give one out of two buttered pieces of bread
To the tiller working in the neighbouring fields
We pulled water buckets from the wells
Still we would offer that water into the pot of an elderly man or a woman or a child
We seldom missed a chance to offer our bicycle carrier to the pedestrian
Who was plodding towards his village in the evening
Although our hands, pockets, bags and granaries were empty,
How rich our hearts had been!
We had bags full of helps, smiles, laughters, guffaws and blessings.
Now we are becoming poorer day by day
For, we have no room in our AC cars, rooms and bungalows
For guests, and sometimes, even for our own parents
Actually, no room is left in our shallow hearts.