Let's Keep Walking...

Yes, on this road where you walk,
Yes, this is where sat a child,
Missing her body in half and her mom, in full.
But, let’s keep walking.

There, the house with the caved in roof,
That is where soldiers decided to make love, not war,
Breaching a Tamil river with several Sinhala streams
But, let’s keep walking.

The peaceful smiling Buddha you pray to,
Is accessory to the murder of the War God Muruga,
Who renounced life, failing to protect his people,
But, let’s keep walking.

Lotuses have replaced roses and lilies,
Habitat adaptation... with pools of blood to grow in,
Tinted with blood, they decorate the newly built Viharas,
But, let’s keep walking.

The trench you step into, in there,
Stood a medic, with a shovel instead of syringe,
For there is nothing to treat in dead bodies and mass graves.
But, let’s keep walking.

The sea waves that kiss your feet,
Also hugged into their bosom, women,
With unborn babies, shot as they fled,
But, let’s keep walking.

The wall you sit on, to take a breather and relax,
Once walled a hospital, eager moms and new born babies,
The wall was not a shell as mortar, and is all that’s left,
But, let’s keep walking.

The new posh hotel you are staying in,
Was the summer home of a Tamil family,
Told over their bodies that it had new owners,
But, you can enjoy the accommodation now.

The view outside your window is beautiful,
Blue skies and green trees dotted with white tents,
Tents where the men are killed and women, impregnated.
But it is time for you to sleep now.

We shall go to another town tomorrow,
No place averts visitors in this tourist country,
Though I can’t do much about the fact, that,
The only stories these places have are about the dead.

But you, the living man, need not bother, for you have won,
By crushing, not mere voices, but also the throats that spoke.
The armed lion will continue to attack unarmed sheep,
But let’s keep walking.