Red Roses On The Nation's Feet Poem by Madathil Rajendran Nair

This morning
At a temple across my street
Drums thumped
A nation's heart-beats

And bells clanked
To rouse my Mother in slumber
A Nation sang
Its national anthem
With chins raised

Far away on a frontier land
More than forty sank
Sons, brothers, husbands
Those who killed them have no regard

Mercenaries of thought
Religion, mental contagion
Awaiting bliss in a heaven
Across vast lands of dark ignorance

Sanguine roses fell on the feet of the Nation
She can't be swayed
Aye, you wait perpetrators
Mother will have her last say

We will come back upon you
With all our ferocious might
This battle is ours
To win which we will spare no effort

Sure, you will flee in fright
No matter wherever you hide
Scoundrels, think aloud, don't you look like
Mad dogs barking on the streets?

Amen.
Oh, that is a call
We have no problem
Chanting it out aloud
For we have always been
Birds chirping peace
Aum, Aum and always Aum
Who is there to discern?