In savage streets it’s hand to hand
once shrapnel rips the air that’s damned,
no sin of ego in this land.
Baptismal bloodshed echoes
through rust and rebar ghettoes.
There’s bullet swarms and rocket rain
but infantry must hit terrain,
forget I’m sane and rupture veins
with melee-trench-knife flashing,
the bane of peace doves, slashing.
I wear their red of death and drive
my blade abuzz in hellish hive
to stay alive! Yes stay alive!
The apathy of killing,
and twisting morals willing.
My heartbeat kept, a victory,
it pounds just like artillery
but prized, despite the misery.
A witness to destruction
and holy soul’s corruption
and christened by the selfishness
of presidents with negligence,
we soldiers march with evilness.
The narcissistic leaders,
the preachers and the breeders
of rhythmic spates in drumbeat hate
unfurl their nation flags and fate
in bloodlust war… while heads of state
stay combat clean in bunkers.
I witness gurgling utters
your last and bloody gasp for “mama”.
I grasp with greed my breath in chest.
Thought ricochets inside my skull;
I’m still alive! I'm still alive! I'm still alive . . .
WAR
Woven into the night, I saw
A sky adorned with gray stars.
Like meteors, they touched the earth
But it was too late; it wasn’t a wish.
With momentum, the voices arose,
Screams of terror flashed through firelit rubble,
An endless wailing echoing farther.
Greed was what brought us down,
And longing wrote our fate in red.
Kings who sat on sky-high thrones
Shall not notice the cries below.
Only our own lives left to burn out
In an endless void of peace.
Our hands can tie themselves
From soul to soul so that we may remain.
Like honeybees we were,
Following the queen blindly for life.
Yet we must remember:
Unity brought us peace,
Whilst war ruined it all
Our dreams crushed
And hearts left solitary.
By Jahnavi raj
A barefoot baby was walking down the street,
holding his mother's hand,
glancing at the food in his mother's hand:
leftovers from a fancy restaurant.
From his muddy face, his bright smile was dazzling.
I witnessed peace in his mom's eyes.
They were sitting amidst destruction:
blood, dead bodies of dear people, broken toys, and clothes scattered everywhere.
Those homeless people had nothing to do with political wars;
those things were just out of context for them.
When relief came from the political leaders,
cameras were flashing, and the news was being covered by leading news channels;
those innocent people's eyes were also flashing
after finally getting food after three days.
I saw peace in their eyes.
Jesus Christ preached tolerance.
Mohammed did the same.
Yet modern day messiahs,
Have brought upon them shame.
The Hindu faith is peaceful,
Jainism and Buddhism too.
But religious fanatics
Spread hatred through and through.
Religion is a binding force,
Meant to guide the human race,
On the path to righteousness,
To achieve the Gods’ grace.
Misguided by avarice,
Nations are driven to war.
Artificial boundaries
Created; humanity tarred.
Every war is ruinous,
Many human lives are lost.
Conflicts benefit no one.
They come at tremendous cost.
Let us all break the shackles,
Of extremist discourse.
Let's spread peace and harmony.
Let's be a positive force.
For too long has Mother Earth,
Borne the disasters of wars.
It is time that mankind joins,
And travels together afar.
Let us forget jingoism;
Join the brotherhood of Man.
Eliminate all conflicts.
Together, we surely can.
In halls where silence cloaked the dread,
You raised a voice, though fear had spread.
With leaflets fluttering like doves in flight,
You lit a candle in the night.
Not with guns, nor iron might,
But truth and courage, fierce and bright.
A rose in winter, pure and still,
Defying hate with steadfast will.
Your words, like whispers through the air,
Asked hearts to feel, to act, to care.
Against a storm of brutal lies,
You stood with clear and open eyes.
Though gallows claimed your final breath,
You did not bow, not even in death.
Your petals fell, but not in vain—
They bloom where conscience dares remain.
White Rose of Germany, proud and free,
You taught what strength and soul must be.
A bloom of hope in darkest hour—
Forever grace, forever power.
No Flag on the Hill
He woke to the hiss of burning plastic
a child's shoe, half-melted in the road.
Something like singing came from the mosque,
but it was only wind
through broken glass.
The birds left weeks ago.
Even the dogs are quiet now.
A rusted swing creaks in a schoolyard
where no one plays anymore.
A mother once painted the front gate blue.
Now it’s ash and wire.
Someone drew a border
right through our kitchen tiles.
They boil rice with rainwater and clove,
eat in silence.
Outside, a drone's red eye
blinks, blinks, blinks
and does not blink away.
The Call to War or False Promises
They spoke of honor carved in stone,
Of glory waving from a hill.
They lit the torch, then threw us in,
And called the burning “noble will.”
They draped their lies in marching drums,
And wrote our names on gilded scrolls,
But none could see, beneath the hymns,
The hunger swallowing our souls.
No More War
Marching boots echo
no birds sing in the
shattered valleys.
Children’s toys buried
beneath the smoking ruins
where are they ?
Flags wave in triumph,
but mothers get folded notes
instead of sons.
Steel birds above us
drop fire with no memory
earth weeps sorrowfully
A soldier's last breath
drifts with dust into the wind
nameless in the dark.
.
No victor remains
when the fields are filled with blood
only ghosts rejoice.
Old men talk of pride,
But young men vanish into mud
history forgets and forget
Rain falls on helmets,
drowning cries beneath the mud
the war will never end.
In a child’s drawing,
the sun bleeds behind barbed wire
innocence erased forever
The earth spins once more —
blossoms rise from ash and bone,
whispering, “No more.”
Before the guns and bombs were made
the clubs and fists were swung
names for numbers now we trade
the senseless turned all numb
crumbled blocks broken down
create, destroy, rebuild
a three ringed circus paints a town
the crop gives up its yield
when fields demark a hospital
operations carry hope
what's kept for some is lost for all
descent, a slippery slope
the yoke is held on common ground
the round encasement smoked
logic is stuck on what was found
when starched and staunch men spoke
to quote with quaint eloquence
will mask whose fate was sealed
an absence of benevolence
when truths have been revealed.
"So how are you today, Hun?"
I always picture myself in terrible armor when I hear this.
The Attila in me wants to run her through with my sword.
I look behind the couch.
Not there.
I look under the couch.
No.
Could it be stuck on something?
I find the sword three days later,
when I'm not in the mood to
even use it.
So what good is it anyway?
Which is why I
have trouble with the
cheapness of bullets.
Give them all the guns
and permits you want,
folks, but each
bullet should cost about
$100,000.
The Attila in me picks up the sword.
Got to go.
At the start of the next war,
While the headlines scream "war, war, war",
Go fit a lens to your gun's barrel
And a reel of film in its magazine.
It would be a better war—don't you agree?—
If all the innocents soon to face your gun
Froze in a pose
Anticipating the shots to come:
Shots of them, I mean,
Not shots at them!
When the order comes to open fire
That'll be the time to peer through your gun sight
Ready to take to the field of battle
And go clicking away
At the follies of men in war,
The corporate vultures circling above,
And all the lies, lies, lies about the war.
For where blood spills,
There truth must spill too;
But oft in war, it's the pills we get
To cloud our eyes and dim our minds.
Then, perhaps, we'll someday learn
Why our boys and girls who march forth to war
Never do really as of old return.
The heroes of a thousand battles
Retreat to a thousand bottles
At the doctor's and the barman's.
Who we call survivors
And whom we call casualties
Their fates ultimately come equal:
One falls in the battlefield,
The other in the bottle-field—
But fall they all do, they all do, O lord!
I am an Anti War Creature
War is no more
Like before
War is all that politicians adore
War is hate, blood and death we abhor
War is erasing earth’s core
War is closing life’s door
War kills innocence that you ignore
War is widening the gap between the four
The East, the West, the South and the North
War will just devour
Our entire civilization store
You, warriors, what do-you explore?
Your humanity and manhood I implore
You are throwing seas offshore
War murdered children then tore
Their parents under their eyes on the floor
Would you, please, tell me what’s the score?
babies are buried
now we are happy relaxed
single missile lost
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