Rest in Peace, Gauri Lankesh
Photo: The Hindu
By Santosh Bakaya
Minds deranged, shot at truth at close range
Yet again
Truth was silenced
yet again.
Masked men unmasked their evil designs
Yet again.
A voice of dissent was silenced
Yet again.
A heinous crime was perpetrated
Yet again.
And Nero fiddled
Yet again.
Unfazed by humanity’s pain
Yet again.
The guilt-ridden night whirled into nothingness
Yet again.
As truth was killed with a chilling senselessness
Yet again.
Darkness reigned, the world was benumbed.
To its wounds, justice succumbed.
Horror-struck, we heard ‘the eternal notes of sadness’
Yet again.
Will this darkness ever give birth to the sun?
Or will helpless humanity merely express outrage
at this revival of the Neanderthal age?
Whither truth? Whither justice? Whither freedom?
Has it all succumbed to the caprices of a vile fiefdom?
Sanity squirms in anguish deep, at this dastardly killing
Chilling humanity’s spine.
The small fry watch as a nation hate-scorched
flounders and dodders.
The big fry go all out to mend international borders.
But nay, truth never succumbs, no matter what.
Its fire cannot be doused by any gunshot.
It will rise, and rise from the ashes
Branding a comatose humanity with the power of whiplashes.
Bio:
Dr. Santosh Bakaya, an academician, scholar, author, essayist, and poet from India. Her poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, The Ballad of Bapu, is published by Vitasta Publishing.
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2 Responses to “Rest in Peace, Gauri Lankesh”
Chilling, the way murders have become casual occurrences. How many more martyrs will it take to get people to protest in a big way?
Great poem by Santosh Bakaya
Rest in peace.