Valuable space

‘Four!’ And we have won! Cried the winning eleven
Much to the chagrin of the losing eleven,
The game that raced the pulse upbeat,
The game that turned the nations on heat.

But it wasn’t that day a national game,
Nor was it of international fame,
It was the local boys that played that day
Against each other on the ground that day.

Oh! Where is the ground? It is very much there
With security, a fence you cannot go in there;
It is no more a field, nor a green ground
Very well protected, by the prowling hound.

That is the story of a ground in a city
So is the tale of a field near a city
The green patch in the middle that was a dream
Turned to a high-rise, fulfilling someone’s dream.

You, me or them can be that someone
Not wishing to live on lease of anyone
Uprooting the grass, felling the trees
With little or no effort to plant new trees.

How we cry about our cities so loud
Unattractive and hot to the passing cloud
What do we expect from the jungle of concrete
If we cannot formulate a solution concrete.

It is about time, the rules are made strict
It is about time they are told to restrict
The construction of high-rise, the destruction of greenery
To plant flowering trees and save the beautiful scenery.

The eyesore garbage has finally been removed
The contract that was signed, its value it proved
No more can there be, encroachment guilt
For now there it stands the stadium that is built.

It’s a four again! The match has just begun,
This time too there was no need to run,
But oh! What fun to have an open space,
To give to ourselves our valuable space!