The forgotten tears

The forgotten tears




In the gelid path of democracy

Her spirit stood in awe

With eyes open and mouth agape

She remembered the lovelorn dawn

She toiled in day and night

The lash burns still scorch

From desuetude her emotions rot

From pain her tears drop

She cried silently as she toiled

She hoped the sun would rise

Brick by brick she built the monument high

Her black skin washed the castle white

Her blood dropped constantly along with her silent tears

stained the green grass red with her old. negro fears

The pellucid jargon yielded high ambitions

Dreams she began to sow

Her superfluous expressions, her pleonasms

were never understood.

She suddenly died on one day and then her spirit awoke

She thought a mere reverie that her body was wought in smoke

She ran in that castle high across the high walled rooms

She heard the sussurations of workers inside

she reached to them and tried to talk but they never could listen

Their thin hands, black torsos silently worked on

A few white men kicked them hard and denied their daily bread

She saw them working without exhaustion, she saw them working in dream

She ushered them to the world beyond but no body listened to her

Soon the tale got over fast, thousands died in hate

The white hearts donned rich black blood and threw their carcasses away.

All the spirits reached heaven and prayed to the mighty high

And then they saw this happy dawn a fulfillment of their dreams

A man like them in that castle stand

Talk about the hopeful days that would come

The spirits gather one by one and sing their dreamy song

Now they know oppression is over and here comes a fresh new morn

Black and white, yellow and green all colors mix in this tune

Heaven conspired to make this song a fairy tale that came true

The spirits now smile and cry as they see the man march down

They once washed the castle white with tears and now their smiles turn it brown.

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Barnali Saha (Banerjee)
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