Arif Ahmad’s poem The Optimist appeared here in October 2014.

Where Are the Mandelas? The Gandhis?
By Arif Ahmad

The Pandora’s box of terrorism and a world spinning on its head
For our choice of dying comes down to which is the better death:
From terrorism or as collateral damage?
Either way, if you notice,
The dead invariably stay dead.

Watching, waiting gods, please look away.
Show some patience, hold your say.
Wait until your Judgment Day.
We, the chosen ones
Sometimes confused with angels
Are not done killing our own
Not just yet.

Whatever happened to kindness?
Goodness?
Thoughtfulness?
Why is bitter the new norm?
Where are the Mandelas, the Gandhis of this age?
Fourteen years in, we are waiting, and so is history.
Can you step forward and make yourselves known
Before we ruin it all, before it’s all gone?

These crazy proxy modern wars
Have people dying on all sides
Some now knowing why or for what cause.
If killing made the world safer somehow
Wouldn’t this be a very safe planet by now?
If wars were the solution
Where is the happily ever after conclusion?