The Gunman

A gunman picks his Kalashnikov
Shoots a pen that stabbed him
Shoots a man who cursed him
Shoots a world that scourged him

  The gunman screams his pain
  Reloads, and shoots again

The gunman, draped in darkness
Cannot see the light
Cannot think or reason
Why is the gunman blind?
 
Behind him there’s a story
deliberately ignored
A convoluted history
A tale that’s seldom told
 
The gunman screams his pain
    Tries to say he’s hurting?
    Begging for compassion?
    Confessing his sins?
… The manhunt begins

Every shot that’s fired
drains our humanity
Addicted to the news
we lose our sanity
 
The gunman leaves behind
a debt he cannot pay
Turning a blind eye
our debt
we deny
 

Ehab Lotayef
Montreal, January 7, 2015

 

Ehab Lotayef is a Canadian Electrical Engineer of Egyptian origin. He is also a accomplished poet, playwright and photographer with several works in print in both English and Arabic. Ehab is an experienced human rights activist and organizer, with many years of experience, both in Canada and Internationally. He has traveled to Iraq and Palestine multiple times on fact-finding and solidarity missions.