Helpless Anger
- Independent Ink
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
How much longer before the ethical right triumphs over physical might?
By Meher Pestonji in Mumbai
Not sure what provokes more anger. The Trump plan for Gaza with the Palestinians having no say in their future, or its abject acceptance by world leaders, especially Arab leaders not standing up for their brothers.
Righteous anger has been fueling protests around the world, with Gen Z leading and achieving coups in smaller nations – Nepal, Bangladesh -- in our own neighbourhood.
Anger is also boiling in European cities with London currently facing thousands of protestors clashing with a confused police force.
How much longer before the ethical right triumphs over physical might in the more powerful nations too?
Here’s a poem from my 2024 book ‘Can Poetry Halt War?’ That it remains relevant today is the tragedy.
HELPLESS ANGER
Helpless anger
bubbles in the breast
knocks at rib cage as
images of blood soaked babies
hit screen
Tiny mutilated bodies
staring eyes
encountering bombs
before peace
experiencing hate
before love
facing death before life.
Then headless babies!
Ribs bind anger
into a seething bomb
bubbling, boiling, bursting out
of constricting cage
to explode
in action…
Meher Pestonji is a writer, poet and social activist based in Mumbai. She has been a journalist writing on multiple social issues, theatre, literature and art, and she has worked in several grassroots and civil society campaigns for the rights of the marginalised, for women’s rights, housing rights of slum dwellers, with street kids, among other campaigns. Her books include Mixed Marriage and Other Parsi Stories, Pervez, Sadak Chhaap, Piano for sale, Feeding crows, Outsider. Her other books include Being Human in a War Zone, Can Poetry Halt War, Offspring and Poems.