Tuesday Poem: "Letter to a Mass Murderer" by Andrew M. Bell

(for the 50 shaheed)

So dense is your hatred

I cannot see into your heart.

So blind is your hatred

you cannot see into another’s heart.

So deaf is your hatred

you cannot hear a young woman in a hijab

use the past tense, when telling the grieving crowd,

her father “was a nice man.”

So callous is your hatred

you turned the slaughter of innocents

into a video game.

As a child, did you ever wake from a nightmare

to be comforted by a parent?

Did you ever run in terror

from a playground bully?

Try as we might,

we cannot see where you stumbled as you ran,

twisting your logic

as you fell into the dark web

then on rising,

found yourself unable to continue

in the human race.

Over and over,

so we never forget this black day,

we will say the names of the fifty shaheed,

but we will never, ever, ever

say your name.

by Andrew M. Bell

For more information about the poet, Andrew M. Bell, see:

https://www.bookcouncil.org.nz/writer/bell-andrew-m/