Who decides
who gets to live
and who must die
who declares that massacre is justified?
Who decides
what is truth
and what is a lie?
Someone wants a temple,
someone else a mosque
then who will fight
the wars of the martyrs?
Who decides
who is the hero
and who the traitor?
Enough.
We will not stay silent anymore,
we will not lock ourselves indoors.
We will rise,
we will resist.
Who hacks our minds,
telling us
these are friends
and those — enemies?
Who will speak up,
who will question power,
who will stand
against the ruler
who wears falsehood like a crown?
What is truth,
what is lie
who can tell,
when the media
sings hymns of authority?
Sometimes I wonder —
is this democracy?
where writing a poem
is called treason,
and loving someone
is rebellion.
I am a poet of the people,
a voice of the crowd,
a citizen’s poet.