I don’t know who was shot
in the forests of Vavuniya,
or the sixty people picked
up in recent weeks under
the PTA—to combat terror,
not unite parents and teachers.
But playing with acronyms
or drafting another cartoon
with the mustachioed
monster, head of the family,
sending henchmen off
around the world to play
offense against the UN
Human Rights Commissioner,
what in US campaigns
we know as the Swift Boat
strategy, hoping the world
will stay distracted by
ongoing conflicts and
the island allowed
to carry on jailing opponents,
terrorizing ordinary folk,
leaving the locusts to eat
during the time assigned
to the scourge until
the soothsayer, ensconced
in Tamil Nadu, and via
text message, tells the leader
and his clan: it is time now
to pack your bags: all pacts
with Mephistopheles
have term limits.
Indran Amirthanayagam, April 12, 2014