"Good or bad, guilty or innocent --
they are all equal now."
- William Makepeace Thackeray

When the waves came
Roaring and moving mightily,
Unleashing the power of
A million bombs exploding at once,
They didn't care
And just didn't discern
Who or what was in their way.

They rolled in
With cruel indifference
They hammered and battered
With such gross disregard
To all our differences
Real and imagined.

They scorned and dismissed
With one massive sweep
Of sheer watery power
The barriers and boundaries
We'd erected in our minds,
Imposed on our daily living,
and etched deeply in our land.

Fishermen and their families
Engaged in a daily struggle with the sea
Probably expected a watery grave
But who could have imagined
It will happen this soon, and en masse?

Boys and girls living along the coast
Who played a game of hide and seek
with the (not very long) arm of the law
Breaking the coral, or diving for reef fish
Are now one with the reef
Theyd slowly chipped away.

Sand miners and dynamiters
Convicted criminals and remand prisoners
Are united now, in grim mass death,
With forest guards and game rangers
Policemen and civil servants.

Supposing they all had some debts unpaid
That angry Ma Nature decided to collect
How can we explain the fate of new-borns
Lying haplessly in hospital beds
Freshly delivered, still with their tags
Being swept away, with moms screaming?
Can any Mother do this to another?

Hoteliers big and small
Who'd built their castles on sand
Even encroaching public beaches
Creating oases of luxury
Amidst vast deserts of poverty
Gasped in disbelief and horror
As their enclaves dissolved
And merged with surroundings.

With no warning whatsoever
Their guests - the holiday makers
Who'd saved for many months
And planned for many weeks
For a few idyllic days in the tropics
Enjoying the sun, sand and sea
Had their vacations rudely cancelled
By Forces of Nature.
And they were the lucky ones.

Government soldiers
On land and at sea
Hoping to protect motherland
From enemies known and unknown
Armed to their teeth
Trained to contain "situations"
Had no chance in Hell
When the cruel seas unleashed
Forces they'd never imagined.

Rebels or freedom fighters
Call them whatever you will
Found themselves engulfed
By the very same waves
Ruthless, indiscriminate
Not one bit sympathetic
To their cause, or their struggle.

They've been locked in for too long
In an unwinnable war
For bits and pieces of land
For supremacy, sovereignty
And the right of self governance.
Did these noble ideals
And protracted negotiations
Offer any protection
When the waves came?

Good or bad, guilty or innocent --
they are all equal now.

As we in the aftermath tiptoe
Through endless depressing scenes
Of death and utter devastation
Can we tell the difference
Between Sinhala and Tamil,
Or Muslim and Burgher,
Or soldier and rebel
Or policeman and prisoner
Or rich and poor?

Good or bad, guilty or innocent --
they are all equal now.

Does it matter now, really,
If the dead and departed
Prayed at the temple, kovil or church
Voted UNP, PA or JVP
And on which side of the law
Or morality they stood?

Good or bad, guilty or innocent --
they are all equal now.

© Nalaka Gunawardene, Colombo, Sri Lanka. 28 December 2004