sixty years ago
there came home a train
all burnt and black
with carriages filled
of corpses mutilated
they were angry then
that we had broken off
they said we were a part of them
and we always would be
why then should we have a separate nation
they couldn't understand
today we sent a train
we named it Samjhauta Express
it was going back home
we were trying to re-establish ties
which we broke off sixty years ago
and for every one of those years
they paid us back
by burning alive sixty of us
sixty people
who had nothing to do with politics
innocent lives
prisoned in a moving, burning furnace
what was their crime
why did they have to pay
and with every life
they broke a home
they shattered childrens lives
incomplete
emotionally maimed
who will pay the price
for parents lost
for broken homes and hearts
for lives torn apart
when all we wanted was to be friends again
was it so great a crime?
and what about your own people
in their memories
how they tried to save a train full of burning people
won't your childrens nights be haunted
for the rest of their lives?
we paid then
and we are paying now
but we will not pay tomorrow
our children will not pay the price of our freedom
we will break through these barriers
we will not let this last
we will still cross borders
and you can keep your fires
burning in your hearts!
Afreina Noor
Pakistan, February 19, 2007
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