Strike the shoulders..bruise the backs.
Raise the stick
against the unafraid …unarmed….future?
Let the sirens drown the songs…
Let the cameras witness what power does
when it grows afraid of questions,
of truth of a people who are no longer afraid…?
It was never the stones you feared.
It was a notebook ..A slogan spoken…without hatred.
And yes you should be afraid….now
A generation has discovered its own voice.
You struck not flesh alone..You struck…at hope.
You charged not a crowd but tomorrow.
Your children’s tomorrow..
Yet listen…
The earth is older than every and any empire.
The wind has carried the names of tyrants away like ash…
Yet we don’t learn from history we keep glorifying mythology.
But hey remember it keeps account with astonishing tenderness
Of the footprints of those who stood..their ground
without weapons, without hatred and refused to bow.
The road will remember. The rain will remember.
The lathis that you hold… will also remember.
The dust of Jantar Mantar …will remember.
The broken spectacles…that fell on the ground.. will remember
The torn flags. The scattered shoes.
The trembling hands
that would not unclench their faith…will remember
The trembling of voices as they watched their trust broken by
teh very hands they placed it in…
Will remember….
In a more honest dawn…when
You cannot silence the voices in your head…
You, will also remember.
Memory cannot be beaten down or arrested.
Conscience cannot be tera gassed into silence.
Truth does not bleed to death because a baton falls.
It waits.
It gathers strength
It returns….
In another throat…another march…another child
asking another uncomfortable question.
That is why…..voices frighten power.
Because a voice does not end …where a body falls.
It crosses streets..It enters homes.
It sits at dinner tables.
It waits beside the mirror.
And tonight..when you return home
when the uniform is put for wash or folded away,
when the noise has finally surrendered to silence..
And a child…with eyes
still innocent enough
to believe you, runs to hug you…
And asks,
“What did you do today?”
May your answer be one you can speak
without lowering your eyes.
Without the shame that lets you not wear your name badge..
For power passes.
Uniforms fade.
Orders expire.
But the truth of what we chose
when faced with another human being…
that remains…etched forever.
Long after the bruises have healed.
Long after the slogans have faded.
Long after our names have become dust.
It remains…
And it will asks
again,
and again,
and again
What did you do today?
~Rhea
