Paris Is Burning For Justice For Nahel Poem by Bernedita Rosinha Pinto

Nahel - had no fame, no fortune
but he had a life to live
and a mother to love him
so dearly;
he was her only child
and she will miss him now forever,
she will weep for him endlessly
as injustice in all its force and furor
prompted a bullet to snuff away
her son's life all so abruptly
when he was so young and vibrant,
so certain of a mother's benevolence.

Paris in pain and disdain;
when a policeman shot
a teenager called Nahel,
'could this be true? '
the people kept running out
on the streets
and asking themselves-
'could this be true? ',
the riots and fury escalated
when they found no answers
to these queries:

- is it fair to shoot a helpless teenager
who did his job as a delivery boy
to earn some money for himself?
how could he be silenced
by a policeman's bullet?


- why was it necessary to shoot him?
could he be a victim
of racial discrimination?
- or was it that destiny had set its clock
to separate a son from his mother
so ruthlessly?
- what will that mother do now
but cry every night
when she does not find him in the house
but she sees his picture
in a photo-frame?

when will she stop
missing her only son?
or will she mourn and moan
as she recollects
that her son died by a gunshot
fired mercilessly
by an indiscreet police officer
who had no justification nor urgency
to do it?

and as sentiments culminated
their actions and words reverberated
to tell that discrimination is not a story
to be read again and again;
and that humanity should last
not by shades of colors
of skin or of hair
but by its own respect
for every human life
that exists on this earth;

and though discrimination
can never be discarded
and its consequences
can be never evaded,
neither no law nor order
can ever foresee its impact,
as racism sparks a chain reaction,
an emotion
so difficult to control
so indecisive to curb
that no promises can deviate it;

hence those flames and voices
keep rising in the streets of Paris,
the sympathy and sentiments
keep mounting
intensifying and depicting fury
of a sadness,
a sudden group reaction
towards a loss of life of a teenager
who was so youthful and innocent;
his death by a gunshot
is yet another example
of discrimination,
- racial discrimination,
they observe;

and in every mind comes a flashback
how the policemen shoot and kill
so mercilessly and without a permission;
so people seek safety and guarantee
for their own existence
to live and walk, to eat and sleep
without discrimination;


and as that youth called Nahel
never known or never heard of
before
in Paris has been killed by policemen,
his death speaks a language
which describes to the world
the pangs of harsh racism.

and even if centuries will re-start
from zero,
racial discrimination will never dwindle;
so pray for Nahel,
pray for his mother
let them be in their own
profoundness
of harmony and prayers
for death is hard to bear
and a love of a mother and son
is hard to express or forget.