The Marching Lambs

As lambs we are marching towards the slaughterhouse,
through blood and gore, forests, rocks and vast deserts’ sands,
since the dawn of man to satisfy lust and greed
whose cloak has always been woven with threads of want
or need. In the beginning, it was with bare hands,
then with wood and stone but since the time of bronze came
the sheer scale has been rising up in leaps and bounds
until the Little Boy gave us nuclear liberty.
(We must leave due blood and fame for the Fat Man too!)
Still our march towards the slaughterhouse never stops,
for the men in power need these wars to remain,
should God need the strength of men to defend His name!
So we march ahead and the crimson river too;
give birth to saints women, not generals, will you!

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Homo Avaritia

The readers may like to go through the following report to know the context of the poem…

http://www.thedailystar.net/country/rajon-killing-jalalabad-oc-suspended-117502

How could you let them go away?
Don’t you have children of your own!
For money, how much did you say?
Just seven thousand dollars, wow!

Don’t hide behind your posts or uniforms,
that will not give you any relief from
my conscience and my soul! The verdict says,
you are guiltier than the charges being framed.

Still, the court shall give a reward, instead
and recognize your kind as members of
a species that has not been researched yet,
Homo Avaritia shall be its name!

Though humanoid in appearance you live
on crime and corruption entirely
and your staple food is bribe, squeezed from the weak
but your veins are thick with flattery for the strong.

Finally, the court must also admit, your kind
has the upper hand in here for quite a long time.

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Perhaps Tomorrow

As I let the raindrops wash myself clean,
I wonder how much rain would it take to
cleanse this land free from greed and corruption,
so deeply ingrained in the roots that grow
and feed whatever sits on top of them,
be it humble grass or the skyscraping trees
and how many drops would it take to cleanse
the time as well, so sad and oppressing!

Perhaps tomorrow will have the answer
but when shall tomorrow come, I wonder!
Jimi* said, when the power of love can
overcome the love of power, the world
shall come to know what makes the words like
peace and honesty so rare and divine!

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* Jimi Hendrix (1942 – 1970)

A Model Citizen

No thanks, we have had enough of your lies,
enough of your petty charms already;
now loose that mask of conjured illusions,
we don’t need your bravado anymore!

Or, perhaps we don’t deserve better men
and women too than their lot, for they are
from the same stock, same blood and land as us,
vilified the way power is known to do!

My heart dreamed of being a hero when I was young
but soon history showed me the fate of heroes
and philosophy asked me, what good it would bring,
if absolute power corrupts absolutely!

So I resigned all my dreams and learned to be a model
citizen who eats, breeds then casts his vote for them as well!

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Love in Turmoil *

Against the backdrop of destruction and violence
raging through my motherland, I have a red rose
for you in my hand, her sweet smell fading with time
but their lust for power offering no respite!

Though your prolonged absence has set my skin aflame,
the loud cries of agony from the victims, burned
in the ruthless fire of a civil war, disguised,
drown the bereaved sighs of solitude from my heart!

For more than forty years we have endured that lust
but how long, I wonder, we must in silence live!
When shall we turn around and roar at their bloated face,
“We have had enough of your promises and threats!”

Is there no one who wants to have a spine at last?
Come sharp, for the smell of my rose is fading fast!

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 * Lovely Conversations 12