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SikhSpectrum.com Quarterly                                                               Issue No.21, August 2005   Who will mourn? Usha Kishore However we may dwell upon all this, one tremendous fact stands out - I mean the slaughter of nearly 400 persons and the wounding of probably three or four times as many, at the Jallian Wallah Bagh on 13th April. That is an episode which appears to me to be without precedent or parallel in the modern history of the British Empire. ~ Winston Churchill Jallian Wallah Bagh Memorial amritsar.com Who will mourn? Who will mourn for Jallianwallah Bagh? Who will mourn the dismal blood shed? Who will mourn the deaths of innocents? Who will mourn their panic-stricken cries? The wind wails, the well stands in silence; Listen! A child shrieks somewhere; a youth cries out in fear; a woman, baby at her hips, jumps into the depths of death; pain explodes… Through the walls of time, shouts of fear echo, screams of terror greet the whistling bullets, forced from the mouth of hell – Look! my people lie dead and dying in and around the well; look at the rivulets of blood… Monsoons shed their tears, Spring sheds flowers, Thunderstorms lament, but the world forgets; Apologies, they say, are not for the imperial, Human rights die a bloody death in the colonies… Who will mourn for Jallianwallah Bagh? Who will mourn for my brethren, dead and dying in and around the well? Who will mourn for my kinsmen, shedding blood for a freedom to come? Soldiers of India and Pakistan at the Wagha Border. Photo: AP Wagha Border We were one. Now we are two. We stand at the gates - One green, the other saffron - We watch the flags rise and fall; we clap our hands… Look at us - same skin, same hair, same eyes; We sing the same songs, We dream the same dreams; Yet, we stand a line apart - a line drawn by cruel long-ago, a line that split earth, water and air… Other barriers break, other lines are undrawn - Why then do we stand and stare from a line apart? Let's cross the line, let's break the barriers: "We are one, not two!" Is this a dream? But there are other dreamers, too - And take heed! Dreams do come true! Wagha Border was previously published in Fire, UK, Issue No:19, 2003 These poems may not be re-produced without express permission of the author. Copyright ©2005 Usha Kishore. About The Author Print this Article                Email this Article                Comment on this Article     About Links Subscribe Disclaimer
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