And There Was Silence

They came for me, one night

When the darkness was heavy outside

And I was in my lover’s arms;

They came for me with their guns,

They pulled me out of my lover’s arms.

She screamed, but not very long

And there was silence.

I did not know what they were about

When they dragged me with them

I did not know why

I got no answer to my questions.

Not then, not later.

All I got was abuse,

And there was silence.

But they asked me questions

Who I knew, and why I read

Subversive literature; why I was

An enemy of the nation.

Questions to which I had no answer

Except for silence.

And so they took me out one night

Far into the forest, and they shot me there

By the side of a muddy track

One night, while it was raining.

Just a shot in the night

And there was silence.

And they put a gun in my hand

While I lay on my back

With the rain in my face.

They took photographs, plenty of photographs

Of me, with a gun in my cold dead hand

And there was silence.

               

And the media cheered, saying

A terrorist, Maoist, enemy of the state

Had been eliminated. A minister posed for cameras

With medal for the man who shot me.

Somewhere, my lover wept. Unknown, forgotten

And there was silence.

Years passed. New terrorists

Were found and killed.

Another day, another night

Just a shot in the night

And lovers crying in the night

And there was silence.

Copyright B Purkayastha 2013