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Had I known you'd leave like that
I'd have held you closer
Hugged you longer
Traded harsh words for gentler ones
Had I known…
They see me
Watching,
In case you'd think of driving past
Or in my mind
Drifting
Down old familiar paths
Just to remember your hand in mine
As we went for walks…
They must know I keep hoping
To hear
Footsteps I knew so well.
They intrude to offer me,
Soothing words along with tears
Over cups of scalding tea.
I'd rather live with my regret;
My memories …
And as for their pity,
They can save it.
– V. Ramanayake

On the Beat

Just another cop
On the beat
Sweating hard
To earn his keep
An honest attempt
To remain straight
In a crooked world
A plain face
with a common name
Doing his job
Without praise
Putting his life
On the line
For strangers
without a moment's delay
Wet in the rain
Burning under the sun
Without a single complaint
Often
Labeled
Without pity
But at worst
Merely a pawn
In a corrupted network
– Banura Keshawa

Answer

Pity ? what is pity pray?
"Tis but the answer to your 'Nay’!”
It is but dust of yesteryear.
Pity is for the loss of
something valued.
Without or with pity
Life goes on
Pity, Pity, Pity me
Is the cry we often hear.
As for me –I will not pity thee
And do not thou pity me.
My life is joyous – poor tho' I be
My spiritual riches you do not see.
Let's to pity add some love
Laced with prayers that God above
will give all people peace and serenity
Then no pity will mankind
ever need.
– Pearline L.Withana

The Choice

They walked along, chatting happily.
The plaintive mew of a kitten, made them stop – and look.
Some uncaring human being had dumped the kitten – on the roadside.
It could hardly walk. How could it fend for itself?
Their hearts heavy with pity, they walked on. "Feeling pity for the animal is not going to help it,” she remarked.
She was right. He walked back and picked up the little creature; he would open his heart and his home to the abandoned kitten. It will not remain an object of pity any more.
– Noeline Azariah

The Killer

'I don't need it!' cried a little girl
In an isolated orphanage.
I couldn't figure out
What she was referring to...
Was it clothes?
Or food? Or a place to sleep?
Or was it the books on the dusty shelf?
I couldn't read her thoughts
But I wished I could…
Seven days afterwards she died,
Hanging herself down along
a rope from the ceiling.
In her hand, was a crumpled piece
of old paper with some words,
Written in blotted letters,
'Don't pity my death,
Pity is a monstrous killer'.
But, before I could realize my own words
Seeing the pale, dead body said,
'What a pity!'
– Poornima Medhangie

Pitious

Pitious young thing
On the yellow brick road
Without the Lion,
Tin man or Scarecrow
Knowing not
Whether the Wizard
Is a myth
Hoping the road
Isn't a dead-end trail
Dorothy trots on
No one to comfort,
No one to hold and protect,
Not event a soul to direct her
When the road disappears
Beneath the fog
Witches are bad
Whether east or west
Flying bats are everywhere
Lurking till a time to pounce
Caught up in this land of nightmares,
Without pity
Praying for a miracle
To return home, unscathed
– Thushara Chathuranga

Ward 64

Wrapped in the blues of silence
and my blankets
I don't want to move.
Some people in the corridors
eye me pityingly.
I laugh;
why pity?
and they walk away, now fearful
for they do say I'm
'a bit wanting –
up here' and –
they tap their heads and laugh…
But I ask you,
those who pity me
have you ever been very still
and still very happy?
Like me?
I think not
For nobody in Ward 64 cares for me.
– Yomal Senerath Yapa