Dear Boston, Stay Strong

We Sri Lankans know too much about bombs. As a people recovering from a thirty-year long bloody terrorist war, we’re familiar with the many agonies they bring to innocent lives. Our hearts are with you Bostonians, as you face this meaningless tragedy.

There is nothing much we can say about meaningless tragedies and pointless deaths and the insanity of terrorism. Because words stop making any sense when we try.

It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.

And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”

— Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse V

Stay strong Boston. You will rise above this.

Poo-tee-weet.