And We'll Rise

You can kill us but you can’t destroy us

For you will pass

And we’ll rise.

You can crush us down, tear us to pieces

Under the clattering tracks of your monster tanks

Their barrels like bars across the prisoning sky.

You can cut us down, under your bulldozer blades

As you cut down the orchards and break down the walls

You can make us bleed as easily

As you can make the children cry.

All that is in your power. Killing is what you do

Death is what you bring with you,

Skull-face leering over your shoulder,

Exulting.

Death, dressed in a business suit,

Death, dressed in uniform.

We have no defence against death.

Yes you can kill us a thousand times, in a thousand ways.

You can shoot us and bomb us, burn us and strangle us

You can erase all we know and loved

But you can’t destroy us.

No, because time is on our side

And though you crush us down

You, too will pass, and once more, we’ll rise.

You will consume yourself, in your fury

One day you will be gone,

And we’ll rise.

Like grass from the ground in spring, like clouds in the sky

Like the phoenix from the ashes

Once again, we’ll rise.

The earth will still go around the sun

When you’re gone

The world will still know sorrow and joy

When you’re gone

The moon will wax and wane, the tides will rise and fall

And we will arise, we will walk tall

After you’re gone.

There will be no tanks then, no guns no bombs

No drones flying up in the skies.

Just me, he, she, we together

From the funeral pyre of your ambitions

From the wreckage of your cruelty

Kill us, trample us down a hundred thousand times

Like laughter after sorrow, like today gives way to tomorrow

From your hate and your burning fire

Like a comet turning sunwards

Once more, we’ll rise.

Copyright B Purkayastha 2012