Fallen Soldiers
(Dedicated to worldwide Anti-War Day honouring fallen soldiers and all victims of aggressions)
By Deepak Sarkar
My fellow world citizens –
Fallen as soldiers or by soldiers
Your parents and friends would miss you forever!
Most Politicians would shed crocodile tears –
As they attend news briefings and fund raising dinners!
Many editorials would use you to raise patriotic fever –
Some would honestly write to stop the menace of wars!
You can be assured of my heartiest and helpless prayers!
I tried very hard as a normal citizen –
Ignoring personal pleasures, family, and friends
To convey peace messages using my voice and pen –
Informing leaders, politicians, journalists, ambassadors of UN
Feeling urgency to save you all from sudden cruel end;
But they mostly fell in deaf ears or bought humiliation without much gain!
Politicians were not by your side when you were dying in pain!
Media analysts were preaching virtues of strategic gains!
But my mind was always with you like a concerned family or friend!
Couldn’t enjoy life wondering why military is not humane!
Rest assured I will keep on dreaming to bring you that day
When soldiers won’t fight just exchange flowers bouquet!
***
Birthright
By Shreeram Krishnaswami
I tried to tell him
being American
was a state
of mind
he could just as well
have been born Mexican
or Chinese or Palestinian
and then what
God would he pray
to what flag would he wave
that his citizenship
was a fluke
in the game of chance
we call birth
rolling a die
I watched
Lucky take his chances
crossing against the light
on the Avenue of the Americas
headed for the Great White Way
where My Name is Rachel Corrie
never played
A cabbie, the gentle Halim –
who flew to America
on shockwaves
of an Israeli-launched
American Hellfire missile (shot from a helicopter named Apache in a cruel joke on conquest)
that demolished his
civil engineering job —
having just heard via cell phone from Lebanon
his three-year-old daughter Sa’dia
succumbed to injuries
from her new toy
a shiny cluster bomblet
dropped from the heavens
by hell’s angel Israel
and generously
provided by hell’s tax payers,
Halim blinded by grief tearing
to his destiny
down the Avenue of the Americas
tossed Lucky like a two-faced coin
called karma
***
Light a Candle for Palestine
By Genevieve Cora Fraser
Light a candle for Palestine
In their darkest hour
Light a candle
But curse the darkness
World politics empowers
Israel strikes
Kills as it pleases
In the streets from the air
The Occupier’s disease corrupts
Degrades suffocates
Those who participate
A candle burns for Palestine
But is nearly extinguished
As blockades snuff out life
Yet hope for the afflicted lingers
Endless assaults on the West Bank
Drowned out by mantras
“Look how we suffer”
“Holocaust deniers”
Wears thin as death rains
On the people of Gaza
Corpses and cripples
Israel’s consumer bye-bye product
Has tripled and netted new friends
Plus cash on the line
From government stooges
Indebted to financiers
To those who claim death
Is the universal answer
War without end
Amen
Light a candle for Israel
Light its shadowy passage
From an era of darkness
To one that enlarges
An obligation to others
They off-handedly deny
A Holocaust on the sly
Light a candle for Palestine ’s
Holy Land made barren
By plastic gods paid homage
While those anciently rooted
To the land
Are crucified
-These poems were contributed to PalestineChronicle.com
