Father Stan
Was quite a man
The might of the state
Sought to crush him
It didn’t even manage to
Anywhere near shush him.
‘A caged bird
Still can sing,’
He said this quite
Inspiring thing
And proceeded to do
Precisely that,
Singing with zing.
His body was frail
But his spirit didn’t quail
At all that was hurled at him
In Taloja jail.
So many were moved
By the sight of this man
Suffering like Christ
Turning the other cheek
On behalf of the meek
For the sake of the weak.
But not the state
Not the courts
Not the men
Who denied him bail
Claiming that ‘terrorists’ ought to be
Locked up in jail.
Now he is no more
He paid the ultimate price
But he taught all of us
Important things
And one of them being
How a caged bird can sing.
Why, now we know
Even a dead bird can
Rest in eternal song
Dear Father Stan.
This poem first appeared on Sunder and Sonati’s blog, Anhad Ka Baaja. Read the original here.
Sunder and Sonati have been living and growing a forest on a small piece of land in Thekambattu in rural Tamil Nadu for the last 20 years. You can read their blogs here and here.
Featured image credit: Wikipedia/editing: LiveWire