I am happy to say that my poem, ‘I cannot tell the difference’ has been published by Rebelle Society. A big thank you to the society for considering it worthy of publication and for doing a great job with the editing.

You can read the poem by clicking the link below (it looks better on the laptop screen than on the mobile screen).

I cannot tell the difference 

If you like, agree or disagree with the poem, please do not forget to leave a comment. The society wasn’t sure how the poem would be received given the current times. So your comment would help them in gauging the reaction. Thank you in advance.

I am shocked into silence
I have been here before —
A dark place — where the senses go numb
Like my fingers holding ice, a stinging pain first, then nothing
And a question, “Have we come far?”
If ‘Yes’ be the answer, then “How far?”
There are things I do not understand
And presumption would be wrong
like the neighbors who brought down the tree
Its roots had spread under the earth on which stood their home
My heart sees no difference
In the killing of George Floyd in the United States
and that of infants and mothers in Afghanistan
But they tell me it is because I am secular
Like it is a bad thing
but I found no difference
in the killing of eight-year-old Kathua in Kashmir
And 23-year-old Nirbhaya in Delhi
Which one was worse, I do not know
But what I know is, it’s no longer enough
That I pray for me and mine alone
For we live in a world under attack
From blind racists and wild forest fires
Barbaric rapists and ravaging cyclones
I see no difference
If the perpetrators are not booked
Black or white, uniformed or not
Educated or imbecile, elite or commoner
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, whatever
My brain says, “Murder is murder.”

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