Drawing by Imadh Azeez against the backdrop of Colombo
In Depth News (IDN0 29 July 2022
The following poem is by H.A. Azeez. It accompanies a drawing by Imadh Azeez. ‘Aragalaya’ is the Sinhalese for ‘struggle’, now synonymous with the movement that led to the fall of the government in Sri Lanka.
My Aragalaya
By H. A. Azeez
How audacious you must be, man
To ask my opinion and how I feel
About my freedom and about my future
While controlling my language, my voice
You want me to accept you as my lord
And your unrelenting hold over me,
Giving me your own choice of words
Which I’ll utter not, lest it might define me
With your eyes fully covered by racism
You loudly claim to have an innate vision
With a bleeding rod of a strange logic
You will never crack the hanging pot
Your devil dance in its cruellest form
My country isn’t the stage to hold
I refuse to wear the mask you offer
My struggle is to draw the curtain down.
— Drawing: Imadh Azeez
[IDN-InDepthNews — 26 July 2022]