BADGE OF INNOCENCE

The blood of innocents
Have never won wars
Yet on humanity
Left indelible scars.

Your cause, if just
Will certainly be won
Through stoic sacrifice
But never with a gun.

Don't you read history
O warrior of faith
Violence once begun
Shall never abate.

Face men in uniforms
If you must die
Leave alone the innocent
To live, laugh and cry.

But limbs and guts and crimson gore
Of what were human beings before
Victims of violence unseen
What was their crime, Fidayeen?

You were martyred for a cause
Though you discarded human laws
But that limbless orphan knew no hate
For this you'll be banished from heaven's gate.

Wish you'd shown your courage
In the face of a gun
Laid down your precious life
And reserved a place in the sun

But now your blood too
Is mingled with those dead
Lies in the same pool
The same colour of red.

Those you killed
Wear the badge of innocence
While your crude action
Will never ever make sense.

~Siddharth Sanyal~