Poetry Has a Voice

Killing a tiger—

that’s violence,

that’s inhuman.

Killing a lion is a crime,

killing a deer is sin.

But fishing—

catching fish—

is entertainment,

peaceful,

a way to connect with nature,

a pastime with friends.

No one calls

fishing inhuman.

Why?

Because fish do not have

vocal cords,

cannot scream,

cannot say,

“I too am alive.”

When one cannot speak,

killing becomes

entertainment,

a way to pass the time.

When society’s fish

cannot scream,

poetry speaks instead.

For the crushed, the oppressed,

poetry has

vocal cords.

Poetry can scream,

raise its voice.

For the voiceless, the powe

rless,

against power, cruelty, tyranny.