Once there was a cloth.
It was pretty and blue
and white and red.
Everyone thought it was grand
because it flew up so high.
It stayed there all the time.
But since it was so high up,
nobody noticed the fabric tearing.
Nobody noticed the stitches failing.
The people just saw the cloth
way up high like it was before.
The people never noticed
that their cloth had become a rag.

With color painted on my skin ,
I walk amidst these clouds ,
Too high , too scared to fall ,
To fall onto more melanin.
The more the melanin the more alien I become , they say.
I try to soak these clouds into me ,
Like I absorbed the Indian in my folks .
Like I carry a bunch of them beneath this skin.
Like my taste buds will always crave for more spice.

Like it is all I know.
Like I am always the one suffering with the wrong accent.
Like an accent could be right or wrong.
As if , proper has a sound of its own.
I come from the land of red soil
Soil being red from the blood .
I come from the air ,
Filled with all the carbon and heat
I come from the waters of Indian ocean .
But , mainly I come from my country , my India

ऐ मालिक, सिर्फ इतना-सा मुझपर तू करम दे,
मुझे सनम से प्यारा मेरा वतन कर दे! !

कर दूँ निछावर तन-मन-धन सब अपना,
इतनी प्रज्वलित मुझमें राष्ट्रप्रेम की अगन कर दे! !

सकुचित न होऊँ क्षणभर भी सरफ़रोश बनने को,
ऐसी मनोवृत्ति का, मेरे ज़हन में जनम कर दे !!

अस्तित्व मिट जाए दहशतवादी नर-पिशाचों का इस धरा से,
और परे हो मुल्क से गद्दारीभरी सोच भी ऐसे उसे तू दफन कर दे! !

मेरी माँ के आँचल तले चैन से सो सकूँ मैं,
ऐसे विदा होने पर अता मुझे मेरे तिरंगे का कफन कर दे! !
ऐ मालिक, सिर्फ इतना-सा मुझपर तू करम दे! !
- सचिन अ॰ पाण्डेय

Must we ask an unpayable fee?
Saying “wait” just to later decline?
It now seems that the land of the free
Is a home that the brave cannot find.

How vexatious that they storm these walls
Pleading reason and asking charity.
Oh, how dare they try escaping home
To a land we brand OPPORTUNITY.

I fear the longing of millions of souls
All brimming with fury and cause
Is more pond’rous than the marching soles
Of the soldiers defending our flaws.

When the world is in high spirits
In a lazy mood like a madman
I'm breaking myself down
From this wonderful world.

When the world is educated
I am just starting to learn
When the world is founded
I am asking others for help.

When the world is bright and strong
I am so tired in this powerful world
When the world enjoys a morning
I am still sleepy in this pleasure.

When the world becomes a new day
I am still in the darkest mind
When the world is young and fresh
I am a lazy young in this country.

Come on Patriotism. I'd care
To build up my country
Like the developed world
My youth's exaggerations
Keep smiling for the nations.

Yankee Doodle used to speak
Of bravery and freedom
But now most of that is gone
And we are sure to miss them.
Once we stood for righteousness
And peace around the clock.
Now that door is all closed up
And no one dares to knock.

Yankee Doodle lost his mind
And took the country with him.
Now the hardest thing to find
Is any D.C. wisdom.

Yankee doodle we begin
To hide our heads in shame.
Certain politicians here
Have sullied our good name.
We’ve become a people who
Invade and conquer other lands,
Leave them dying in their streets
By our American hands.

Yankee Doodle used to speak
Of bravery and freedom
But now most of that is gone
And we are sure to miss them.

Yankee Doodle it takes years
And decades just to clear up
All the damage greed has done
And even more to cheer up.
Oust and jail these awful men,
Bad thoughts in their noodles.
Let them sit in prison cells
With years to yank their doodles.

I never was occupied with the essence of patriotism
The altruism of the conscription of the young, to later express gratitude for their service, for their heroism
The sensationalism of singing of the anthems, and the so-called 'civil defence'
But really, it's all merely an excuse to justify unwarranted offence
It's a weapon wielded as a subterfuge for the ethical codes transgressed
For capital, people become national and subsequently irrational
Due to patriotism, all the decisions of the government are infallible
And anyone who opposes said verdicts is radical
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The water laps without memory
upon sand that once bled
He feel to his knees once there in prayer
and now again to recall what God said
Even the breeze fell silent to the witness
of the bells, echoing what we once read

A reluctant hero, the same as a tourist
this land was not his land,
But the hearts that once beat in sorrow
recognize his outstretched hand
The moon spoke without being asked
“Their grieving washed away with the sand”

When dreams become nightmares
and glory ages into regret
we watch as he stretches his uniform
over a heavy heart covered in sweat
He knew the tears of a soldier fall hard
upon folded flags unable to forget