Let Us Break The Silence Poem by Nida Nawaz

We will have to break
The deathly silence
That pervades these poor, numbed beings
Herded into deceptive pastures
Of queer compromise
With a politically-correct stick
Of communalism
These poor beings are pushed
Into a state of sustained sedation
Courtesy religion
The master tranquilizer
And then shorn of
Their skin
And flesh as well
Sinister little saplings of poppy
Are planted in their minds
For a monstrous plot of destruction
Their hands are filled
With the loose sand of superstition
In their very juvenility
And their eyes are blindfolded
With a thick black cloth
Of irrational thought
How meekly they try to hold on
To their life
While it slips mockingly
Through their fingers
And consigns
All their dreams and aspirations
To a silent, unnoticed death
Poor souls!
Seeds of rancour and hatred
Are sown in their bodies
And then they are blown up
In crowded markets
And big cities
With remote controlled devices
It is high time
We break the silence
And guide them back
From the mine fields of communalism
It is time we acted
Since the deep, disturbing silence
Has seasoned by now
In the giant cauldron of time
And reached the point
Where it could break into
A shrill scream
A clarion call
We will have to act fast
And expose in raw detail
This dehumanizing, crude game
Of deceit and exploitation
Played out from the horror houses
Of politics and religion.

(Hindi Poem English translation by Ashfaq Lone) .