Colonial Relics Poem by Padmanabhan Ananth

Of Egyptian antiquities, it was a exhibition
Stunned I was, in my work break, by the collection:
Preserved mummies, intricate masks
Delicate statuettes, alabaster vases
Rare gems, gold jewellery, cartouches
Pottery and much more from long-lost times

Well displayed in glass show cases, spot-lit
To explain each relic, was a crisp narration
Where discovered or excavated with dates
Truly I was transported to those yonder times

But alas, this wasn't anywhere in modern Cairo
Or in any other town in today's Egypt
But in the galleries of British Museum
On Great Russell Street in downtown London!

It set me wondering: how could the English
Collect so much of that land's history?
Then realised that it was, after all, a British colony
So it was 'transfer', not plunder or booty.

A few months later, we were on Nile cruise
It was quite a welcome coincidence!
Saw great many wonders at the Museum of Cairo
Of a civilisation dead many millennia ago

Crowded collections in large shelves
Some preserved, others just strewn around
But missing were the ones I admired in London
Absent from where they must belong

Then Misr erupted, a mere few months later
The Desert Spring spread from Tahrir Square
Riots everywhere, streets ablaze in rage
Artefacts at the museum: objects of pillage

That set me wondering:
Of the antiques in East and in West
Clearly those in London remained safest
Wasn't the 'plunder' deserved for their preserving?
After all, these belong to mankind all
Not alone to the people of the Nile!
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