40 thousand people
40 thousand phantoms
are marching towards you
right now
you have taken their lands
you have taken to hatred
you have been taken by greed
they knew nothing of this
they knew everything
their backs, painted by barbwire,
cooked by bullets
know everything
40 thousand dreams
that couldn’t connect
how the price of onion & flour
and the price of guns and tanks
and the wrath of Buddha
and the sword of Rama
would not let them
return to their homes by sunset,
maybe, smoke a little,
and look at the river flowing by,
clouds making shapes in reds and oranges
so they turned with the tides,
with the agony of the moon, the weeping hills,
the alert golden winged vultures –
with all history and being – 40 thousand vivid humans
first you didn’t count them
and now, you can’t
and, right now,
in deep silence,
they are marching
towards you
towards the spot between your eyes
may 40 thousand nightmares be all yours
tonight
Rohingya, flesh of me and my mother
soul of my sweet, big, ancient earth
you,
friends,
shall live
and they, who took your lands and bodies,
shan’t.
Atindriyo Chakraborty is a poet from Kolkota
I want to comfort you, Atindriyo Chakraborty. I want you to know that we have 40,000 here in Massachusetts willing to fight for whatever is right for compromised others. … We can’t save and help everyone, but the numbers do match your 40,000, and we won’t stop until social and environmental justice is finally served.
No, we’re not big compared to the total number of humans on Earth. Yet all the same, we are a force with which to be reckoned. No, we will not stop and we exist not only in Boston, MA, USA — but all across the world.
It is a cold comfort due to our relative small numbers compared to the total humans on this planet, but our small impact is better than nothing:
—————–
I stand corrected. Some estimates put the crowd as being 40,000 people (whereas I had heard that it was 20,000-30,000) in Boston. There were something like thirty-seven arrests amongst the demonstrators. The rest — the many, many thousands — were peaceful.
Stopping Hate Crimes! – Sally Dugman
Here’s some more about it in case you’re interested:
Feedback
Sunday, Aug 20th 2017 5AM 67°F 8AM 71°F 5-Day Forecast
Trump now APPLAUDS 40,000 protesters for ‘speaking out against hate’ after first condemning ‘anti-police agitators’ among huge anti-fascist crowd that took on ‘free speech’ activists in Boston
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4805070/Boston-braces-rally-activists-clash.html#ixzz4qI7rOVCz
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
So you can feel a bit heartened. We will always stand and help!
Their ghosts haunt you
And demand justice
Which you couldn’t deliver
While they were alive