Hostage Monologue Poem by Dinesh Nair

Please don’t point
that gun at me.

I can crystal-gaze
looking into the barrel
and see my future
unfolding.
I see blue skies
and moonlight
mountains and
meadows. I feel
warm hugs and
stolen kisses.
I taste flavours
that will never be.
I hear heartening claps
and footsteps
of my great
great grandchildren.

That barrel
is a time machine,
I see my past
laid threadbare.
Of friends and school bells
my favourite blue plaid skirt.
Exam halls and first love
Mama’s dal
and dada’s eyes.
I see them all
looking into that
unpitying barrel.

Please don’t point
that gun at me.
Here, let me put
this flower into that barrel.
It’s wilting
but it carries
the fragrance of my lover.

Please don’t point
tha…
BANG.

(This was written right after the Mumbai terror attack on 26/11/08, when terrorists held a lot of innocents as hostages and shot them dead later on)