“Amritpal Singh of Queens, right, and others held up images of the victims, including an injured police officer, of the recent shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., as they took part in a vigil Wednesday (August 8) in Union Square Park.” (source: New York Times)

Writer Preeti Kaur pens “Letters Home”, a poem in tribute to the victims of the Oak Creek, Wisconsin shooting. An excerpt:

america:

enter

the gurdwara door is open

our bare feet like cracked glass

our covered heads bulletproof from ego

we turn our backs on bellingham

build our gurdwaras from post traumatic cinder

of bombed birmingham black church

nina simone sings tera bhaana meetha laage

to tune of mississippi goddamn

gunpowder lines noses of children

left behind wailing mummy papa we will never forget you

‘the love that forgives’ a lullaby

which sears obedient

into a bittering lemon