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What did I do to deserve this?
These piercing barbs, mocking memes,
vicious gossip, whisper campaigns—
tearing apart my psyche,
every single day.
Why do you do what you do?
We know we’ve not been good to you
And we keenly feel your pain too
This is something we never wanted to do
But the concoction of lies, half-truths and rumours
perplexed us beyond words.
Spurred on by some crazy notion,
we lost our inner compass.
Then why don’t you stop, once and for all?
Every awakening is accompanied by a fall
Why do you keep lingering on the edge of hell?
You’re killing me and disfiguring your soul.
We don’t mean to hurt you.
You are loved. You are like us.
But, you see, there are commands
that come from above.
What do you mean by “above”?
Does God tell you to follow instructions at
loggerheads with his own lessons?
Is he breathing down your spine,
which is already broken?
No, it’s not God. It’s the one in charge.
In charge of what, in the name of the Lord?
In charge of our safety.
Your safety? Who’s harming you?
The Other.
Did you say “brother”?
Or “neighbour”?
Or the “weather”?
Will you pardon my ears
and repeat the answer.
The Other.
What have I got to do with this “Other”—
the target of your vacuous ire—
if I may venture to enquire?
YOU are the Other.
But, you admitted, I’m just like you.
In a way, that is true.
We kind of feel that too.
Be we must conform
if we have to belong.
Do I not belong?
Maybe you do.
But we’ve been told to close ranks
to protect ourselves from you.
Protect? Where is the threat?
There is. Apparently, there is.
That’s the general consensus.
We need to be afraid.
We must be on our guard.
That’s we’ve heard.
That’s what is said.
There’s something like that.
That’s what we know …
We don’t really know …
But there is something, it seems …
So, you’re frightened by some morbid fantasy
Gripped by paranoia
Ready to relinquish your humanity
for … what did you say? Oh, yeah right, “safety”,
whatever that means in your vocabulary.
So, you are decent people driven crazy by the
phantom of fear
You’re all kind, very kind
It’s just that you’re losing your mind
So, I must be patient and let you walk all over me.
These are dark times
Everyone’s changing
We’re being carried along
where the wind is blowing.
But it’s getting too much for us too.
We’ll have to make amends
for what we made you go through.
We promise to bring you a band-aid
that can be applied to all wounds.
Even those festering in one’s heart?
And what about the scars
that will bear witness to this barbarity?
But let’s leave that aside
Because no answer will suffice
I’ll have to live with my wounds
There’s no magic balm
for the injuries you’ve caused,
injuries of which I’ve now lost count.
Would an apology make you feel good?
Oh, yes, that really helps …
By the way, when will you enable abuse next?
Be kind enough to keep me informed.
It takes me some time to put my armour on.
This will end. We won’t be a party to this nonsense.
Why do I feel I’ve heard this before?
A thousand times at least, if not more.
Never again. Never again.
Yes, you won’t do this again
until of course the orders are sent.
Then you’ll be a good soldier
and attack a defenceless innocent,
maybe even your own girlfriend.
You’ve lost your agency with your irresolution
Muddled your heads with made-up confusion
I know you all have “good intentions”
But, somehow, they don’t get reflected in your actions.
Yet, you seem to be cast in a decent mould
But it might just break when the next rock is hurled.
In case I don’t get up after the fall,
please show your humanity by attending my funeral.
Note: This is an intense poetic dialogue between an individual and his compatriots, who have labelled him as the Other. The individual’s only fault is that he doesn’t belong to the majority community. This becomes reason enough to view him with suspicion and attack him without provocation. Though his fellow humans have been swayed by misleading rhetoric, the voice of their conscience refuses to be suppressed. They are, however, too confused to apologise with unwavering conviction—the tragedy of indoctrination. I wrote this poem as a keen observer of society, with a PhD that examines the possibility of peace and mutual care in an increasingly volatile and violent world.
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