∆Disclaimer∆
The following piece of writing may be offensive to certain individuals.

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Six humans trapped by happenstance,
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story's told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking 'cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn't bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man's face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death's still hands,
Was proof of human sin.

They didn't die from the cold without,
They died from the cold within.

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-About-

James Patrick Kinney is an American poet who wrote this poem in the 1960s. Although it was first rejected as being too controversial, it gained popularity rapidly after it had been read out at a council meeting of all religions.

The poem describes the tragic death of a group of six who stand around a fire - each holding on grimly to a log of wood. Allowing their selfishness, prejudice, malice and suspicions to dictate their actions, they refuse to share the log to fuel the dying fire and keep each other warm. Eventually, the fire dies out and in the morning all six of them are found frozen to death, each clutching, even in death, a log that could have so easily saved their lives if only they had overcome the petty barriers of class, race and religion that divided them.

The poem is a simple yet powerful reminder that if we selfishly hold on to the world's resources, and the wealth that it has to offer, if we persist in discriminating on grounds of race, religion, caste, gender and ethnicity,
We are all lost!

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Tbh one of my favourite poems, came across it 2 years ago,
In today's world Human beings have created many division among themselves like class, caste, race, religion, gender etc. The message of the poem is a simple one : if we keep discriminating each other, the world will surely end in chaos.

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