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Where are the Pegasus?

“Where are the pegasus?”, a child asked her mother. “It’s too late to question,” the mother said and narrated a story. 

"There was once a strange creature
He lived with others of his kind
They were considered different
As they were difficult to find.

They were beautiful horses
With the ability to fly 
They could run with the wind
Yet you don’t see them in the sky.

They had families and friends
They felt happy and sad
They knew kindness and love
They could be good and bad."

The little girl thought about them and said-

"They seem to be like me
Just hooves instead of feet
Doesn’t the desire to fly
Make all our hearts beat?"

Her mother replied-

"Yet the hooves instead of feet
Made them a separate entity
The wings instead of hands
Gave them a different identity.

They were them, we were us
They could fly, we could not
They were asked to serve man
But they refused to be caught.

They had to hide in dense woods
To escape the human eye
They were looked down upon
By our heads held high.

Remember I had previously said
They could be good as well as bad
So they decided to fight us
And we concluded they were mad.

They were lesser in number
Yet they killed some on our side
 We too did not stop
Till each pegasus had died.”

When the little girl grew older, she asked her mother one day-
“Mother, were the pegasus considered terrorists?

There are people like us 
Who feel happy and sad 
They know kindness and love
They can be good or bad.

There could be some like me
Who love to wonder why
Or some who share my desire
To fly high in the sky.

Yet they hide in dense woods
To escape the common eye
They have been looked down upon
By our heads held high.

Just like the rest of us
They can be good as well as bad
So they decide to fight us
And we conclude they are mad.

They are lesser in number
Yet they kill some on our side
We too do not stop
Till each one of them has died.

How did some views or beliefs
Make them a separate community?
Did name, religion, nationality
Give them a different identity?”

The girl now older in age yet little at heart, cried- 

“Mother, if this continues
Will they take you away from me
Does being a woman, not a man
Make you a different entity?

Will there come such a day
When we’ll ask fathers and brothers
The pegasus have long gone 
But where are our mothers?"

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