Poem
Gurkha soldiers,
who have been fighting for the British
for more than 200 years.
Some injured, amputees and
more than 200,000 soldiers
lost their lives in ‘Great Wars’.
They shed a river of blood.
Sweat and tears for the British Crown.
Families were left, women, lovers
cried tears of trauma.
So why are Gurkhas protesting?
Why are they on hunger strike?
It is for Equal Rights and Pensions
within their own rights.
There hunger strike may be done.
But the pain is ongoing.
You pay no respect for the Gurkhas.
The open arms of the UK have no bounds,
Especially to the illegal migrants
from over the seas.
But what about the individuals,
who fought to protect these seas?
And left their families back home to starve.
Our ancestors fought and
gave their lives, Spilt blood,
cried tears to make Britain Great.
To help her majesty keep her Crown.
UK forgot the grandeur, prosperity.
And power, of today’s Britain.
They forget the immense sacrifice of the Gurkhas.
The Gurkha soldiers who were wounded in the war,
Have come back with more than physical scars.
Sent back to home, injured and unfit.
Is that fair?
Wounded Gurkhas went home bare foot.
Now they are empty-handed,
without a pension For a fraction of a pittance,
of their British veteran counterpart.
Gurkhas, cry to be heard.
People, pound the pavements for equality.
Supported by many,
they walk the streets of London.
They scream in Nepali for equal pay.
Language, divides us.
But we will be heard someday.
We will continue not to eat.
Gurkhas are no longer a military machine
The Gurkhas only want what they simply fought for.
What some also died for.
They will be heard.
They will be equal.
They will shout loud enough.
Lila Seling Mabo
