The following poem marks the terrorist attack that shocked the Norwegian people on July 22nd, 2011.

Why Norway, why in this way?
By Bashir Goth

Why Norway, why in this way?
Why? A question with no answer
As no answer fills the void
No answer rises to decipher
Why Norway, why in this way?

Why terror strikes without a thought
Why it devastates, demolishes, devours
Why it raises hell that ends in naught?
But why Norway, why in this way?

Oslo is mourning, Utoeya is bleeding
Innocence is defiled, paradise betrayed
Common sense is for answers pleading
Why Norway, why in this way?

Flower after flower, beauty after beauty
The murderer chose with ill intent
To ambush life with heinous duty
But why Norway, why in this way?

With every cry, he chose to pry
No tear should live, to tell the tale
No young elite, no one to sigh
But why Norway, why in this way?

Small and tender as be they may
Adept Norwegians astounded all
As Vikings and Black Death they kept at bay
And never will they; another dismay,
Make them sway, not in this way

A home of democracy, a resort of peace,
Norway will remain, for all to breathe
No color to bar, no creed to cease
And never will they; another dismay
Make them sway, not in this way.

---July 24th, 2011.