#Poetry ‘Where Were You Lord?’ by Fiza Pathan

Where Were You Lord?

by Fiza Pathan

The sky is now alien to me.

Its colour is blood red with defeat.

They came over the mountains and destroyed our warriors

They lay dead…….forgotten, dreaming skulls in the sun.

In a few days what happened, we were not even prepared.

Our captors did not even give us the time, to flee our homes of vice.

Now another race’s flag adorns our shrines.

Our men of diplomacy have been put to death.

When a heart shatters in shock, it deafens the choke of harsh reality.

Where were you Lord when they crossed our borders?

Where were you Lord when they bombed our towns?

Where you Lord when they snuffed out democracy?

Where were you Lord when they raped our women?

Where were you Lord when danger was near, too near?

They burned our skyscrapers, our Towers of Babel.

They scorched our earth to meaningless ashes, they did rub on our farmers’ faces.

The labour of their inferno, reached to stigmatize the sky.

They shot every man in sight of that horrible night.

Were our sins but too great,

To save our Republic from this shame.

Machine guns roar tirelessly, our technology has been put to rest.

Now new masters have taken over the Mother of our birth.

Where were you Lord when they bombed our hospitals?

Where were you Lord, when they infiltrated our metros?

Where were you Lord when danger was near, too near?

I can’t believe what see my eyes.

My rights have been torched to a flame.

Paper laws and bureaucratic catalogues in a bonfire so plain.

Our wails are stifled with the cold metal of death’s shooting iron.

Holocaust to our people, while we try to flee from state to state.

I never knew that war was so infinite in pain

The wound of treachery is too ripe to bear.

Your houses all over are being powdered to the ground with silent hammers,

You are disappearing from the land of faith infinite.

No more caste or religion or region or class,

The hot iron signals us all, to come together at last.

Where were you Lord when they torched our holy literature?

Where were you Lord when they took over our communication lines?

Where were you Lord, when danger was near too near?

Our corruption, our poverty, our sins were too heavy for you to bear.

So as punishment you set aflame our country all in scarlet.

Flowing blood of innocent children is all I observe,

None whom I can distinguish by caste or creed.

Materialism has been banned it was a pleasure all in vain.

Traitors have fled over the seas to cross us over to our friendly undertakers.

Where were you Lord, when our poor were burnt to ashes?

Where were you Lord when they made a law, that would deem us to be no more people so free.

Where were you Lord when danger was near, too near?