We Will Not Forget

 Photo courtesy of Twitter

INDRAN AMIRTHANAYAGAM- 01/09/2021

We will not forget Mullivaikkal,

the shot, the strafed, the scissored,

and the cluster-bombed. We will

 

not forget holes in roofs, holes

in water tanks, holes in heads.

We will not forgot sandy

 

baby bottles, toothbrushes

wrapped in seaweed, rotting

speed boat hulk on the beach

 

ten years after the murders, sifting

through memories and artefacts,

then briefly singing the anthem

 

in Tamil, building this monument

on the Jaffna University campus

to the tens upon tens of thousands

 

who perished–now the monument

bulldozed, soldiers cordoning off

the campus, Vice Chancellor unable

 

to oppose the heavy state machinery.

But not to worry. We will not forget.

And our children will not forget

 

and will remind the United Nations,

the European powers, India,

and America, that in the end

 

there cannot be peace without

memory, that people pressed down

will never forget the instruments

 

that torture them, the butts of rifles,

dark shades of the commanding

officer. Nothing will be forgotten.

 

stories told and retold, and eventually,

back in the capital of the conqueror

when the guard settles in for the night,

 

when the torture director goes to sleep

he will be surprised by his own right hand,

faithful servant, ready to slit his throat.