Rights are not stolen with a flash

but with a whisper

     A rough scrawl and a click

         tighten the chains

in one

         two

                three

in three two one

we return to the highways

forget the signs and shouts

           we live with the termination

unseen are the prison doors

             in the illusion of rights carved in stone

nay these rights are written in sand

        hardened to our eyes

                  but melts at the slightest sun

          these rights inscribed in textbooks

                      they vanish in a breath

      the oasis of equality terminated

           only the elegy whispered by the grave

             what landmarks are these

                 that fall so soon

                    what landmarks are these

                            to be broken by a pen

            a pen is no sword

                     a mere knife

                     the wounds heal too easy

            a raised hand consigns the definition of humanity to nine

                                places one more stake in the divide 

                                 and the present in the hands of the past

              in return

                          the shouts bounce off the wall

                          spreading cold intolerance and injustice

        Our fate is seized by the few

                     with no pill for what plagues us

is there a surgery to remove all that haunts us?

      or have we reached the termination of dreams?

    rights float away like feathers

           and we are left to reshape a world of burning paper