Saddened but not broken
Shackled but not hindered
I fell from your blows,
Harsh and continuous,
I fell but not subdued
My gaze still upwards
Aspiring for the sun
I heard one of us fell today
Darkness consumed another son of light
To stop what has been heralded,
For quite sometime
A day will come
As bright as the sun
And banish the darkness
And all the monsters it has awakened
This wounded shackled body
And thousands others
Will herald that day
We all belong to same tribe
Don’t you recognize us?
Our wounds, blood-stained faces
The thorny crown
The sound of the dragging cross
Broken, beaten bodies with unshaken resolve
Yes, we all belong to the same tribe
With many faces and many names
We belong to the same race
Under your lashes
Under the bunks of slave ships
Sold like cattle in slave markets
In cotton fields with hands once mine
Now grotesque with thousand cuts,
Attained by patting your greed
For years on and on
Yes, it was me
Who wrote on prison walls:
“If there is a God he will have to beg my forgiveness”
Yes, you threw me in a dungeon
I have seen the darkest of darkest
Monsters and places you’ve created
To brand me with a cross,
With a star, or a random scar
With a thorny crown
You expected to humiliate me
But look
I have risen from the ashes of Auschwitz
From under bunks of slave ships
From salve markets and cotton fields
I am the missing one
I am the killed and dumped
I am the son of man
I am the slave
I am the prisoner
I am the one you executed today
Here I am
Saddened but not broken
Shackled but not hindered
Banished but not forgotten
Here I am
Still calling the shots
Under your lashes
Still holding high the thorny crown
Once meant to inflict shame
I now raise as my banner of rebellion
Here I am
Calling for rebellion
From the dungeon
From cotton fields
From the slave ship
From the cross
From gas chambers
Today you killed a rebel
Yet, rebellion lives on
The rebellion I started,
Under your nose
Sameer Mehrab is a writer and co-founder of Balochistan Times. He often depicts Balochistan's socio-political dilemmas in his fiction and poetry. He is based in Canada.
