Woke up startled
one another day
The sound of something crashing
right in to my head
Bomb blast ? Explosion ?
Cannot ascertain.
Beats thumping so loud
I could hear my heart
in my ear.
Fear creeped right in to vessel
Paralysed.
Couldn’t open the eyes for light.
All this in a second.
Next second figured out
It was another helicopter flying
way below than it should.
Normally.
May be the Prime Minister is paying
yet another visit.
I started crying
the next second
So hard
I couldn’t control
couldn’t stop
couldn’t understand
Was it tears of relief ?
That no matter whatever was going on
I was lucky to wake up to silent mornings.
Not to bomb blast or wild cries.
Was it tears of realisation ?
how a twenty two year old girl
in another part of the world was
Waking up to bomb blasts
not knowing where she will be that day
Dead, Alive or Worse.
Or Was it tears of fear ?
That one day the same may befall on my country
My people. On Myself.
Newspapers printed vivid pictures
Burning North
one day, next day and the day after that.
I stopped looking
the next next day.
Terrified.
As though ignorance will somehow prevent
the same from creeping south.
One person’s ignorance, another’s reluctance
One country burning, another boiling up
Another on wait
I may ignore, you may wait to act
But we together cannot remain silent
Not for the sake of humanity or world peace
but for You and Me
For the same may befall on us someday
Not today
Not tomorrow
But someday.
Poem by Akshaya Panicker
Illustration by Namrata Nirmal
Article 19 