Still I Belong To History Poem by Pankaj Prasoon

You won’t get my name
In the scrolls of history
yet I belong to history
I am witness to the broken hopes
Shattered desires
Treachery and exploitation of
The human being
I have suffered in silence
I am suffering in silence
I would suffer in silence
Suffering is my destiny
I have suffered all those moments
And have died
Asphyxiated
Slowly…

When the last ice age engulfed the whole world
I was giving the last homage to my dead father
Spreading petals on his corpse
My father suffering from gout
His hands were broken from his childhood days
I was not a Neanderthal
Annihilated by the homo erectus
Simply sufferer of alienation
misfit
In a society of warriors

I was a stone carrier
Ill-paid, hungry, thirsty and weak
Still carrying giant stones on my shoulders
To construct pyramids
To make Pharaoh immortal
To stitch him in the sheets of history…

When the compassionate Joshua –Jesus Christ was being nailed on the cross
I was boiling with anger
But couldn’t do anything
No one came with me
Among thousands gathered
Numb
Impotent

When Nero was castrating
the handsome Sporus
after making him a bride
and taking out his eyes
lovely eyes
I stepped alone
to fight the debauch
His sentries caught me
And killed me

When they were beating, throwing stones on Mahveer
I had fallen on the stony road
Sobbing and weeping

When the prophet Hazrat Muhammad
Gave the message of Islam-
Peace and proclaimed-al hamdu Lillah
Praise to God
Thank God!
I joined his small group of
The downtrodden and poor
The ferocious animists pounced upon them
Attacked
Pelted stones
I too was wounded
And killed

When the libraries of Alexandria and Nalanda were burnt
And the books were burned to boil the
water of Hammams (Public bathhouse)
my blood boiled
I wanted to shout-
Don’t bury the books
Save them
They contain knowledge of our big brains
But fear made me numb and dumb…

I am a mute spectator of
A coward and decadent society
Where came Buddha,
Mahaveer,
Jesus,
Marx
And Gandhi
The layers of exploitation
Went on affixing day after day…
I am a hidden
Left out hero of the journey through graveyard
Centuries after centuries
So I am a man of history
Though my name has not been mentioned in history
Still I belong to history