SOMBRE, SOBER

There are those times
When the highly emotional
Fail to deliver
Anything except charred bodies
Yet passivity too is no option
To speak of composure
May still save us from bloodshed
And the high speed at which
One charges towards the abysses
That can come to fill spaces
Where love could have born fruit
So go slow, keep steady
Take the risk of leaving the other alive
And able to speak out,

Sometimes it is the rear guards
That see the spilled blood
And smoke from yesterdays van-guardisms
The doubt that has slowly corroded
Our faiths in each other
The passivity that was maintained towards
The plight of the other
The many acts of passion that drew
Innocent blood-
Our choices should not make us barge into another
Because guns can only speak a single language
Anywhere on earth
Whether the military uses it or so does civilians
And that is the familiar language of the arms traders
And the one who takes to guns, inadvertantly
Provides the rationale for the global arms trade
The stock-piling of weapons
Atom bombs, biological war fare and so on.

And to kill someone
Whether it is the military that does it or not
Is something that can't be explained away
A war is no option for the people
And a peoples army shouldn't train their guns at the people
We have to deconstruct all militarisms and militaries
And each shot fired should be accounted for
Whether in army games named practice
Over deserts that turn them even more devastated
Or at people, what ever be the reasons.

This time around we should stop it from happening
The disaster of genocide and concentration camps
We should avoid all violence on our part
And show that most of the violence in the world
Came from the military states
That we should make their steps retrace,
We should vouch against militarism
Wherever in the world it holds sway
And act towards the others who are in peril in true sisterhood
Show fraternity and save our world
From the undue and violent acts
That are enacted in our names
Tell them that this wouldn't do wherever or whoever we are
This  is our duty , that we don't discriminate between people
And shouldn't think that a Muslim , Dalit, Adivasi, Buddhist, Christian or Jew
Women,  refugee or immigrant or minority of any sort
Shouldn't be held captive or attacked
Because we are all refugees or children of emigrants of some long past
And we should know how things could be made better for all
And not just us, whoever we are.