Past Times

• Ridhi Malhotra, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2010

Remember those days that have gone, past times?
When you could hear nature sing without wind chimes

Before in the ozone layer a hole they tore
When elders used to tell stories as folklore

We were tortured, bashed and thrown into cages
Many were hanged and beheaded at very young ages

Before the fence went up, made of barbed wire
When we learnt how to light a bon fire

Before we were forced to learn a language that was theirs
When in large ships they started importing wares

Most of us were taken away from our screaming mothers
Sometimes we would stare and watch silently as we suffer

Before it mattered what colour skin we had
When the whites left us alone, yes, we were glad

Then later on, they came to us with an official apology
This wasn’t ever written in our mythology…