On Maaveerar Naal, Tamil Remembrance Day: a short poem about the Jaffna Public Library.
May we never forget.
It was astoundingly beautiful, the pristine building.
I fell in love with the sparkling white home
to our truths, history, and the beauty of our people.
Pages upon pages of irreplaceable, traditional texts,
burned without a second thought.
Cries were heard inside from the love by the minority population for the history and culture.
While they sat outside,
drinking,
watching us go up in flames.
What they did to the library destroyed more than they will realize,
started the bloodshed, wars, and terror that can never be taken back.
30 years of a war that can never be relived,
text that can never be retrieved again.
It wasn’t enough to make a minority group out of us.
No,
they needed to wipe the entirety of us completely,
eradicate the entire community,
starting from our words.
They burned out our learning and culture
the year of 1981.
The beginning of genocide,
a bloody war,
that will never be forgotten.
image from – https://blogsmw.com/2012/06/01/a-burning-31-years-later/
a little cup of tea 