Composed upon hearing the verdict given by the European Court of Human Rights to Babar Ahmed and Talha Ahsan, permitting them to be extradited to the USA after years of their struggle for justice and being held in prison without trial
That moment
you laid your verdict
The world did not shrink around me
Mountains did not strangle their weight upon my neck
The earth beneath me did not tremble
It stood firm,
and so did I.
I did not close my eyes
out of despair or depression
But I closed my eyes to the world that closed its eyes upon me
And opened them inwards, to a world, more deserving of my attention
I did not raise my head to hide my tears or to contain the pain throttling me
I raised it to see above the crowd, to see the hope filling the horizon
I did not ignore your cries and camera’s out of shame, or helplessness.
I replaced them with conversations more meaningful,
far sweeter, with the divine.
And I rose
above the murkiness of this world
away from its deceit which clothed me
away from its oppressive fingers, looking to grasp and scratch,
from thundering voices, cold, overpowering
I rose
To stand tall whilst they forgot me
To sit calmly amidst their winter
To find humanity within their horror
And to find peace in a world which forgot the word- and yet dreamt of it: justice.
Image from: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/10/01/babar-ahmad-launches-high-court-bid-us-extradition_n_1928397.html