"The Emergency: A Nation's Dark Night"

*(A Poetic Chronicle of 1975-77) *

 

The Midnight Decree

 

June’s cruel night—no warning bell,

The stroke of the pen became a knell.

"Internal Disturbance," cold, austere,

Locked democracy’s doors in fear.

 

No court could question, no press could cry,

As whispers drowned beneath the sky.

Opponents vanished into cells,

While censored ink spun empty shells.

 

Where were the judges? Where the laws?

The silenced crowds with muffled cause?

Who checks the hand that wields the pen

When power forgets it governs men?

 

The reel may twist, the page may lie,

But time’s own script will testify—

No halo dims what midnight wrought,

No song erases truths unsought.

 

Final Stanza (The Lesson Unlearned)

Beware the hour when leaders say,

"I am the state—no other way."

For chains, though gilded, chafe the same,

And fire, once lit, forgets its name.

Sundra

Sham Misri

Washington USA