Death of Jamal Khashoggi
They say—
the pen is mightier than the sword.
Perhaps that is why his blood was spilled,
on that cursed day, 2 October 2018,
when the truth was butchered
in the name of a crown.
He walked into the consulate a man,
but emerged only as an echo,
torn by knives of fear and arrogance.
Saudi hands struck him down,
not for what he did,
but for what he dared to write.
America, with its allies,
sang hymns of justice in the first hour—
but when they saw the culprit’s face,
the hymn died in their throats.
For who can punish the hand that feeds their coffers?
Who will try the kings of oil,
when the world itself kneels at their throne?
They think they have silenced him.
But the soul of man does not die.
Even in the shadow-realm,
his pen is sharper than their swords.
What they killed was a body of flesh,
but what awoke was a spirit unchained.
To them he was a threat—
a mirror of their corruption,
a witness to their empire of lies.
Power blinded them,
and in their blindness
they dug their own grave.
His blood is not buried;
it runs through the veins of many.
From his silence, a thousand voices rise,
from his death, a revolution kindles.
They built a throne on his bones,
but thrones of bone do not endure.
Still waters run deep.
Justice may sleep beneath the ice of power,
but no ice endures the fire of truth.
From nowhere, the storm will come.
Hell itself will break its gates,
and those who mocked justice
will be consumed by it.
Remember this:
they thought they killed a man—
but they awakened a movement.
They thought they buried a voice—
but they planted a prophecy.
And the day will come
when the pen he carried
will carve their names into history’s gallows.
Copyright © Chanda Katonga | Year Posted 2025
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