Jallianwala Bagh
They knew not
Vagaries of faith
Faith led them to
The edge of death
Death duped them
Secretly flashing
Its ravenous claws
Chorus:
Cannon to right of them
Cannon to left of them
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d
Storm’d at with shot and shell.
They were not martyrs
Shining out of glowing lines
Martyrs they never wanted to be
Waiting in desolate history
Death was a natural reality
Those were not natural times
Walled in their screams
They were common as
Common can be.
Guns
It rained all day
Drops morphed
Into cannon balls
Piercing your skin
Invading your heart
Making you squeal
Like a rabbit caught
In those blinding
Flashlights
It did not rain
Their tears had
Soaked the earth
Red and dry
Blood and tear
Tore their hearts
It did not rain
Else the guns
Would have melted