The Pain Poem by Ravinder Kumar Soni

‘Rub in the salt, ' he says,
‘In his open bleeding wounds.
Let his wounds fester,
Let him suffer the hellish pain,
In the manner, he made me do
The way he made me suffer
By burning my skin bit by bit.'
These words were too harsh
For me to act upon,
My friend was no doubt in pain,
Terrible pain,
He wanted his tormentor to suffer
The similar kind of pain.
Was my friend a sadist, I wondered;
He certainly seemed to enjoy his pain,
His tormentor by inflicting pain on him
Merely followed instructions of the superiors,
They had a personal axe to grind.
I did not assure my friend,
I did not console him.
I knew
Thinking about pain is equally painful.
Instead, I waited for his pain to subside.