Following is a poetic response to ASIA: Wounds in the souls of the members of disappeared people’s families can never be cured, which appeared yesterday (September 26, 2014)
by John Joseph Clancey
Will there be another tomorrow?
Or, just another wife’s sorrow,
caused by her husband’s disappearance?
Will I hear my new-born baby’s cry?
Or, will she hear her mother’s sobbing sigh,
wondering about her husband’s disappearance?
Will I be sitting with my father in the Church pews?
Or, will he be constantly waiting for news,
since the first day of his son’s disappearance?
Will tomorrow be another worry-filled day?
Or, perhaps bring a much more creative way,
to avoid the inevitable disappearance?
So many have just gone, without a trace.
Does anyone know the precise time or exact place,
of their ultimate disappearance?
Can I ensure another tomorrow?
And prevent some further sorrow,
by disappearing before the planned disappearance?
For Basil Fernando,
who, in 1989, faced the dilemma:
to disappear or be disappeared.
(John Joseph Clancey is a Hong Kong lawyer and the chairperson of the Asian Human Rights Commission ( AHRC) )
