Dear April

Written by: Fatima Omer

America and Iran sat on one table after decades. Pakistan reached a new level of significance in modern geopolitics. Israel and Lebanon had a ceasefire, which Israel violated on the very day of announcement. Samud flotilla started sailing for Gaza, got intercepted. Oil crisis led to numerous countries imposing policies like fuel rationing and remote working. Assassination attempt in Whitehouse gathering.

Dear April, you began with hopes for peace like the sun rising after hours of darkness and now when you end, a sense of despair surrounds us. Another month gone, another month of genocide, war and civilians paying with their lives for the monopoly elite plays. Another month of history being written that would be studied with wonder by students, parents of whom still get silent glancing at their books.

Sometimes, I think our brains weren't made for storing this much information and that too, all negative. We were not meant to know everything about everywhere. This makes the concept of “global village” scary. This makes knowledge seem scary. Maybe ignorance is really bliss. But till when?

Somewhere, a student reads from a blood stained book, in the middle of rubble of his school. A father returns after burying his child, not knowing how to face his wife. Youngsters get drafted into military, to be sacrificed so their country could claim dominance. A journalist debates with himself whether the news is more important or his family.

May begins and once again, we hope for change. We humans are too optimistic, maybe because we are too scared. We would pray for ceasefires to persist, dialogues to succeed, humans to live again, not survive. We would check our phones every few minutes for a new update, refreshing our feed searching for news we want to hear.

Maybe, May would bring us the joy we have been waiting for so long. Maybe, we would finally breathe in air filled with scents of summer instead of bombs. Or maybe, May would end too and we would sigh, crossing out another month, engulfed in darkness that refuses to leave. Disappointment would loom over us. But then, June would start and the sun would rise again. So would our hopes.