The Witness

by Ravinder Malhotra

A helpless girl she hardly knew
What it was all about
Afraid, trembling she recounted
‘It started with a shout

Marauding mobs with swords and spears
They came with bloodshot eyes,
The children’s gleeful laughter then
Turned to screams and cries.

Father, mother, friend and foe
Lay stabbed against a wall
Was a frenzied mob that so
Even stomped her doll’

She had seen her kith and kin
Dying bleeding and in pain,
And had sobbed and prayed to God
But it had been in vain.

There was nothing now she could
Call her home and ground,
Hiding, shivering in the night
She feared from every sound.

Through the night from far away
Came sounds she could hear,
Every moment she could feel
Them coming near and near.

For two full nights and a day
She hid behind a wall
Waiting expectantly to hear
Her mother, to her call.

Exhaustion, hunger, stench had then
Started her to tell,
She would have to look for food
Away from the putrid smell.

Littered barren streets she saw
And not a friend in sight,
Looked for shops she thought she knew
Deep into the night.

To her horror she had seen
What all had been done,
‘Men into beasts had turned
To have some gory fun’

‘Keepers of the law surfaced
Questioning around
Looked and pocketed things that lay
Undamaged on the ground’

To the grey haired men with truth
She told through misty eyes,
What she saw and would remain
In her psyche till she dies

‘But will these grey haired men’ she thought
Give her something to eat,
Or would she be left alone
To fend for on the street ?

17-Jan-2010

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