Shame

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where hate is allowed
To reign supreme.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Whose leaders have feet of clay
And insecure hearts,
Who are cowardly bullies
And instigate hate.
Who can’t rule with love,
But by crushing their people.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where edifice after edifice
So painstakingly built
Is being demolished
Before your eyes,
And you impotently look on.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where silences are being bought
By coercion, fear and power.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where history is being whitewashed
To make way
For rivers of blood and bile.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where citizens mutely look on
When fellow citizens suffer
And worse,
Cheer to see another fall.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Where reason has lost its way,
Beneath the garbage piles
Of bigotry and fanaticism.

Ashamed
To belong to a nation
Which doesn’t faintly resemble
What we have always stood for.

And bleeding in despair
Because I know
That the worst is still to come.

– Anshu, 16 Dec 2019

(Featured painting is Shame by Rosa Gunasingha)