COMMON PRAYER

You wish you were younger

Than the scorched - earth winds

Hitching a ride on the back of a food convoy

Driving down the A 9 highway to Yarlpannam

O, how I wish you were younger...

You've descended from Mount Sinai

And heard the cries of people in the valley of tears

You camped with the Rishis

Dwelling on the Kailasa ranges

Where the mystical mist mingle with the 'cloud of unknowing'.

Now you're a wanderer

In the intellectual No-Man's Land!

I wish you were younger than the Dust Bowl Ballads

A troubadour, a thinking man's thought.

You have danced with the Veddhas, and sung with the Kuravas 

With sharp perception of the Olmec civilisation.

Yet, you will disguise your knowledge with perfect simplicity.

You will act like a fool, and scoff at the foolish who parade their pride.

I wish you were younger... you would break your silence

And speak about -

The victims and victors

Traitors and turncoats

Lynch-pins and Liberators

The repressed trauma of the Tamils.

You wish you didn't weep openly

Thinking deeply with feelings

Thinking of the genocide of your people.

The annihilation of another ancient fine art and culture

The destruction of nature - the trees, the plants...

Demolition of the eco-system

Even shooting down of migratory birds by the barbaric Armed forces.

What a moral outrage!

How long will you keep the high-flying bird in a gilded cage?

Freedom! Survival!!

Tamils survive, in order to survive.

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