Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Martin Narrod Dec 2016
I hear the crash of the avalanche. Some keep time to its rhythm, there's a lot to do before it hits. I catch the swaying of snowflakes. I can hear the roar of the wind. Before they found benzene rings in the well, I could say who had broken a whole in the oil rig. Some found themselves staring at their faces, picking their destinies away, smoking themselves into a methamphetamine oblivion, until they cleaned the skin off of their faces. I hear the submarines starting in the South Fork, God's Riffle is under, so don't try to join them. Some speak until their lips are the color of bruises, some never speak because they're afraid of finding bruises trapped in their hair. America is spending in darkness. Knowing in foul tradition. Burning at the testicles, and calling in sick. Go home to Wyoming, drink your nuclear family into a white courtroom with a fickle jury of out-of-towners. Be on your best most calm behavior. The denim is up in the air, the snow is coming in shingles, the grizzlies and black bears are choosing which young they ought to hide.

I hear the cruelness of amphetamine users, through and through. You don't want to know them, I don't- I doctor up my circumstances so I don't drive ourselves crazy observing and swerving up and down and off the road. I am the Prince of Bell-Air. I keep my pockets oozing with four colors of black and nothing darker. Something is sharpening the beats of a generation, and no one is calling. Where are my friends in the darkness? I can hear their sides when they cough, but there is nothing like laughing in  glitter, aside from the wildness and toil of this dusk.
We love our motherland like our mother
We are gallant sons of our pure chaste soil
Our love is our anchor our faith is armor
We work for its glory we never stop to toil

We tackle with all the enemies of God
We will send them to their ultimate end
Life as we aspired is very tough and hard
To live head high is our ultimate trend

Life is what a gift for beloved country
We celebrate death with zeal and fervor
Defense of our motherland is a valid plea
Every heinous crime we have to answer

Salute to motherland from gallant sons
Long live my mother land till the last day
Our lethal actions are like lethal guns
Love for motherland is never ending ray

Col Muhammad Khalid Khan
Copyright 2016 Golden Glow
I do not belong;
nor would I want to:
to your flags, regalia
and fanfare.
Your anthems of
passion for
plain dull soil.
Bore my mind
and curdle your thought.

I could not sing;
those songs of unity:
the many words
and melodies of
vicarious triumph,
imaginary victory's.
A vague sense
of something,
of which you're too sure.

I will not hoist;
the fabric symbol:
watch it fold, dither
and ripple.
with the imagined weight
and meaning.
That which you treasure so
deep and dear;
is just a flag in the wind.
Scarlet McCall Oct 2016
We **** by pushing a button.
WE DIE RUNNING FOR COVER.
We are fighting for our country.
WE ARE FIGHTING FOR A COUNTRY
Our sons fear deployment.
OUR CHILDREN FEAR BOMBARDMENT.
We bury our dead in the national cemetery.
WE DISCOVERED A MASS GRAVE.
Our war is raising the national deficit.
OUR MARKETS HAVE NO FOOD FOR SALE.
We proudly display our flag.
WE'VE BEEN ARRESTED FOR DISPLAYING OUR FLAG.
Our mothers grieve for their sons.
OUR PEOPLE GRIEVE FOR THEIR VILLAGES.
When will our soldiers return?
I WATCHED MY HOUSE BURN.
Our son came home in a coffin on a plane.
WE BURIED A PIECE OF FLESH THAT WE GAVE A NAME.
We saluted the soldiers marching in uniform.
OUR SOLDIERS DRESS LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.
We carefully weighed the costs and benefits.
WE DECIDED THERE WAS NOTHING TO LOSE.
Wrote this a few years back but it is applicable to most wars.
Vamika Sinha Sep 2016
their spines are straight -
two different trees in two different woods.
people like them are not meant
to come face to face.
is this the first time the distance between them is silent?
emptied of political din, hoarse
shouts of protest in market squares,
flags unfurled not in love for a country
but in hate for the other.

are enemies still enemies when they are of the same space?

the two girls recognize
that their hair curls in the same way.
they don't reach out to touch
but a curiosity forms a thread between them.
a thread. their fingers tingle, flutter
spooling and unspooling
this new connection, this new thread.
their eyes swing like pendulums.
how new, how strange to breathe
in air that is clean of artificial hate.

they are curious, spooling and unspooling.
what will happen to this thread?
for threads are too easy to break.
and each knows the power of governments,
their ability to dangle them
then break
and break and break.

the two girls wonder. the two girls stare.
they look. they look and look.

but their spines are straight -
two different trees in two different woods.
I wrote this poem in a class that has a heavy theatre component. The exercise was to watch two people stare at each for a couple of minutes, observe this interaction and write a scenario prompted by what we saw. I imagined the two girls I was observing as people from two politically opposed countries, meeting for the first time.
Mark Lecuona Sep 2016
Did you honor his death by saying what was given
to his mother is no longer your burden?
The reason he died was not your purpose; it was
not for you and of that you are certain
But was he not someone who set you free by dying
for the idea that you now assert?
He never knew your anger, only that he received
a bullet and his ideals are covered by dirt
You are free to sit while a nation tries to believe in
something, knowing that he did die
Is it because only a certain race can rule the world
or is the harbor torch the reason why?
Reading the entire alphabet forwards and backwards
does not reveal the truth of every tome
Crying every time my grown son leaves does not
mean that I do not have a life of my own
To believe what we know to be true about the past
need not seed tomorrow's foment
And to encourage revolt by those who foster hatred
is only the path of future torment
It is not the destruction of the union that will unite us;
only the bonds of love for what is written
The words of freedom contain no ambiguity but the fire
of hate makes only ash if we don’t listen
It is not the strong to whom we always owe our thanks;
it is the least of us for whom we wish to weep
You say you will no longer salute our symbol of hope,  
but do you pray for his soul to keep?
To those who would read the words and wave the flag is
not a gun pointed at the poor among us
Instead it would be they who would remind that a song
is the moment equality becomes our purpose
Mark Lecuona Aug 2016
what did they tell you
it was all bad
the water polluted
the people lawless
the champions corrupt
the blood of deceit
what do they show you
nothing but smiles
triumph
while we watch
waving a flag
we are not immune
it is our culture
it must be great
we shall vanquish them
then we will forget
everything we were told
everything we saw
because there will be something new
something new to fear
our differences will become stark
again
difficult to accept
because judgment is the only game we know
and the eclipse of our common interest
will burn into our eyes
searing them shut
as we retreat back into our safe place
Maria Imran Aug 2016
I wasn't asked if I'd like to be born to these parents
in this household or society
whether or not I could gladly shout patriotic slogans for this land
and celebrate its victories, cry on its shredding shroud
get defensive for these principles
prostrating before the Allah I found nearby
But I was given a choice to love you
and I failed myself and all of us, miserably there
it's not like that
Puspanjali Sahu Jul 2016
For me,
love was
my favourite
pale yellow chiffon dress
or may be
my light brown hemp neck less

Brightness of diamonds
placed closely on my fingers
Or darkness of black lines
around my eyes

Love,
may be smiling, giggling or crying over long phonecalls
Or spending hours and hours
and someone’s savings
in a overcrowded mall

Tell me.
how could I realize love can be
more than my imagination,
and your life

It could be choosing
sleepless nights in dark forests
filled with pointed stones
when chances to throw your body
over a cushy bed
in a warm room
is still on

How could I know
how it feels
to take a bullet
directly on your chest
only to
protect the soil on which you were born?

And we, whom you left
in our five star rooms
to sleep peacefully
watch movies with bowls of popcorns
will never understand
what you did for us
even though
we are not related with relations


Today
When I saw you
sleeping peacefully
in the arms of tricolour
and 21-gun salute
could not touch your ear
Today when
thousands of bodies like me
with tear filled heart
raised their hand

I realized
my heart can never love the way
your heart does
and
your soul can never be touched
with my prayers

because

I have never been there
A trial to express the unconditional love every soldier feel for their country.....A tribute to Indian soldiers and and soldiers of any other country, sacrificed their lives for their nation

We can try to feel but I am sure we can never feel what a soldier feel for their nation because we were never in that situation..we have never been there
Next page