Why didn’t you write
About the 1984 Delhi riots?
But…
Why didn’t you write
About the massacre of the Pandits?
I…
Why are you so biased?
So anti-Hindu?
No, that’s…
Why should I
Justify my poetry?
I refuse
And yet; and yet
Through the jungle of accusations
I must cleave a way
It is not that I did not speak then
(I did)
It is not that I did not care then
(I did)
It is not that it was not so horrific then
(It was)
But this is about Now
Surely for those who care to listen
There is a little difference Now
(Not that we need any more differences)
This has been done in my name
(And yours)
And I need to insist
Not In My Name
(And you?)
In the jungle of my mind
There is this clearing I see:
The voiceless cannot speak
So it has to be me