Love, not war

Dear Readers, 
Recently, I was shown a picture which inspired me to write a poem.  
The picture consisted of soldiers holding out their large rifles towards a man. Rater than displaying a defiant act of violence however, this individual had a cluster of flowers in his hand and held them out, placing them in place of the bullets. I found this image extremely unique because it captures so the very essence of our modern day war and conflict. Our various nations, communities and races fight wars based upon the age old conflict of gods, glory, the gods and land, fought eons ago by our ancestors due to the various boundaries and misunderstandings that obstructed inter-cultural understanding. I find that today, the battles we fight are futile, and it is most of the time that so engrossed in our ego, we fail to remember what it is we were fighting for in the first place.
War has become a one-sided phenomenon, for it is the prejudices of a select few that causes harm to millions of innocent civilians who want the same as the people society has deemed as their eternal "enemies", to see their children grow, spend time with their family and die with the knowledge that they executed their duties as children, spouses and parents. There are a few who stand in the way of this hatred that in vain, depletes our world, and these people stand as beacons of hope to the future generations of people, for they wave the timeless banner of peace and hope. 


I see guns, helmets and suits of gray
and as they point it to me I wonder,
Is it me you hate or my faith? 

As they stare with anger, fear and pain I wonder, 
Is religion a blessing or a terrible bane?

As they hold the trigger, pointing the gun at my heart,
I say, my friend, "not only mine, but your heart too, shall fall apart". 

I see the fear arise in his heart and eyes,
and as a tear trickles down
I see a human, not a war toy

I see beautiful daffodils , white and sweet ,
I lift them gently as if a sign of peace
All of a sudden, a cool breeze flows
A world of hate is gone,
Love and acceptance grows.

I place the flower in the gun and encourage him to shoot,
For now, he will shoot love.

"Shoot my friend", I say in a tender way, 
For if we all shot love the world would be a better place. 

- Diya Hebbar