I first wrote this 20th October, 2023. It took 3 years to process the horrors of that night, and it still doesn’t make any sense 4 years later. The questions are still unanswered, the events still wild, the response still unhinged. Yet here we are
Today, the streets were busy, almost bubbly even. Twitter was afire over news of the rising dollar
Everyone had things to do, places to be …it seems like we have forgotten, or have we?
Does the date still remind you of the bullets that rent the silence in perfect darkness?
The bloodstains that materialised from the thin air as the government claimed that there were no bodies?
Did every live notification you got today make your heart stutter? Do you still silently wonder:
Who gave the order?
When my children ask me about the heroes past whose labour must not be in vain, I’ll point to these ones who braved the times and odds to demand for a better country, and paid with their lives at the hands of those sworn to protect them
When they ask why the restoration hasn’t come yet, I’ll show them the clouds that gathered, pregnant with rain, but driven away by the greed of a few. I’ll tell them that power does not guarantee wisdom and old age isn’t always valuable experience
We remember. We remember the bloodied flag. And we take solace in the fact that eventually, blood will speak
20-10-2020 We remember