Three poems dedicated to malaysiakini columnist Hishamuddin Rais who has been in ISA detention for 35 days to date.
Missing Hisham I
Your name is freedom but they tear your wings
And keep you captive in a golden cage; they
Hide your radiance under a table and drown
your fragrance with their sweat
Why do they need to leash you when you will not harm them?
Though they chain you with fury, and dictate
your every move, your consciousness could never
Be curtailed.
Missing Hisham II
"It is not fair that I should be here
and you - behind those cold prison bars
It is not right that I should be free
to feel the sun glare in my face
the wind wild in my hair
the rain soaked on my skin
but you -
alone behind those iron curtains
can feel nothing.
If you could fly
or walk without your hands being cuffed
you would be on the streets
you would sing your songs
you would write about freedom
you would tear down these walls of injustice
you will silence the terror
with your bare hands
you would build a new world.
But I, being free, do not know what to do
do not know if indeed I am free.
Let me take your place
behind those iron bars
let me pay the price
for you
behind those prison walls
let me be the one
to languish in this darkness
for unlike you, I do not know
what to do
with this freedom"
Missing Hisham III
How can you continue breathing
When your breath refuses to acknowledge
That it is your breath;
How can you continue to speak
When your voice does not recognise
The origin of its tones;
How can you continue to walk
When one limb fails to correspond
With the other;
How do you continue to live
When your life forgets
That it is alive;
How do you die
When your death doesn't know how.
- Susan Loone, Bangsar (May 15)
SUSAN LOONE is a malaysiakini journalist.
Dotmai
Penulis kolum ini tidak menghantar sebarang tulisan sejak 35 hari lalu apabila dibungkus dalam satu tangkapan oleh sekumpulan anggota polis berpakaian biasa kira-kira jam 5 petang 10 April lalu di pejabatnya di Bangsar Utama, Kuala Lumpur.