I don’t want a dead hero
~Farah~
I don’t want a dead hero
However noble it may sound
Yes, you can write stories about him
and tell it to your grandchildren,
I don’t care,
I want him safe and not
Buried. Out. there.
I don’t want a dead hero
with his name on headlines news
Yes, you can clap all night, then what?
Tweet RIPs the next day?
I don’t care
I want him doing his work
In. Protective. Wear.
I don’t want a dead hero
and be a COVID widow to read
poetry by a modern-day Owen
of the horrors on the frontline.
I won’t wear
some flower on my breast
years from now. I want him
Safe. And. Alive.
I don’t want a dead hero
I want him home from work everyday
having saved others to save me,
I want to see tomorrow.
walk together on the sandy shores
of our island home,
I want to grow old with
My. Own. Hero.
H.E. Dr Farah Faizal High Commissioner of Maldives to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. She recited this poem at the Commonwealth Foundation’s Festive Poetry Event.
Read two other poems from the event:
‘Time travel‘ by H.E. Dr Kevin M. Isaac
‘Tuvalu, Tuvalu’ by Sir Iftikar A. Ayaz KBE
