Freedom Fighter

Long Ago

Half a century or so

The idealistic young man

Fought the British for his land

He went to jail

They called him a terrorist

He was, no doubt, a freedom fighter

Today, he is withering away

Going madder everyday

He has nothing left to say

His country has been hijacked

By a variant of the hate he battled

Leaving him alone to his fate

Betrayed by the corruption of the state

Which has since proclaimed that very same hate

To be the official ideology

Fed by the people’s unrelenting religiosity

This land is not worth a damn

The hindu and muslim man

And woman

Have clearly not done all they can

To make this the blessed land

It could be

Their dogmatic blinders

Prevent them from being able to see clearly

The freedom fighter

Sits alone in the dark

A forgotten memory

Of what this place could have been