Bradley Snowden Assange

Badri Raina


Bradley Snowden Assange, I say, for
You are one—born to protect
What was once proudly American;
Selfless beyond our tutored  
Incomprehension.

Even as all around us, the “best” hoard
Their lives and open their abuse
On behalf of the “patriotic” gun,
The corporate board, and the politics
That “god-fearing” red-necks use
To trample the world beneath
The ordained boot, romping from
One massacre to the other
Like proverbial bandicoot,
Snooping among “unalienable”
Privacies not just of those without
“manifest destiny,” but of those
That inhabit the “land of the free,”
You fling your soul like streak
Of light across the
Satanic gloom, thinking nothing
Of losing your life if, courting death,
You may illume to common sight
And knowledge the perfidies of those
That, pretending to maim and disfigure
On our behalf, fatten on the ruse.

Bradley Snowden Assange, in our trapped
Misery, the least we may do
Is to salute you, not just as martyrs
But harbingers of hope and apostles
Of truth, returning us to the lad
In the manger whom Herod, like
Our present-day tyrants, saw
As the mortal danger who had
Best be dead.

Not he, but the empire crumbled
As the force of innocence rumbled
Through earth and sky;
You beckon us to something similar
Even as we sneak or standby.
                            badri.raina@gmail.com

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