Photo courtesy of Twitter
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 forget 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.
Watch Indran read his poem here https://www.youtube.com/watch?