MY POEM " RETURN OF THE NATIVES "

                                             

(Return of the Natives)

They do not return with polished faces,

Those you cast out,

Those you hated,

Those you bruised,

Those you smashed,

Those you plundered.

They do not come back shining,

They do not come back smooth,

They do not come back to forgive their tormentors.

They walk with feet cut by exile,

With hands emptied by plunder,

With eyes that have forgotten how to beg.

Do not ask them now

To smile for your cameras,

To perform in your theatre of mercy,

To recite your performative humanism.

Your humanism failed on need

Your empathy arrived after their cleansing.

Let them remain unpolished,

Let them remain true,

Their wound is truer than your sham  sympathy.

( Avtar Mota)

CHINAR SHADE by Autarmota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 India License.
Based on a work at http:\\autarmota.blogspot.com\.