“How profane is freethinking, for,
You’re not, in the pious herd
Write your heart out, and be at war
With those, who ruminate, a verse, misheard!

Be stripped, and clubbed, and shot to death
By those, who know Allah, very well
Your view, no match, for their shibboleth
Whose 72 virgins, you dream of, in hell!

You weren’t Mashal, a Muslim because
You didn’t abide, by the Mullahs’ decree
Why you chose to be, one of doomed outlaws
Our faith can’t afford, freethinking’s blasphemy!”

He dared not be, hostage to rites
Of the making, of ages bygone
Neither first, nor last of the, unsung knights
Poised passion’s paragon, Mashal Blazes On…!

© 2017 Vikas Chandra