Steel shell
Dedicated to our heroes behind bars
By Reza Razavi
December 15, 2000
The Iranian
Incarcerated by ignorance
Tortured by hate
Mother's lament is premature
Though I know what is held by my fate
My body robbed of nutrition
My mind proceeds to transcend
My spirit embraces the desire for freedom
As remnants of torture it attempts to mend
.
Fingerprints of martyrs engraved
Upon bars that serve as a membrane
They demarcate us from our liberty
Within this fortress, auras of the harrowed remain
Warrior scholars
My honorable inmates
Savior the outlawed knowledge
The only substitutions for hate
.
Culpable until innocence confirmed
With our kind the courts waged a war
Sentences issued out of repugnance
Justice an ally no more
Coerced to confess to deeds unaccomplished
Forced into false repentance
The duress only serves to strengthen our resolve
To attain immortal independence
.
Constrained to relieve our souls of the desire for truth
In relief of serving in the hole, undeserved time
We will not capitulate to satisfy our foe
For to request civil independence is no crime
Though confined in solitary
Loneliness cannot afflict me
Darkness carries their radiance
As ghosts of the vanquished comfort me
May our battle for liberty remain vicarious
May the spirits of our murderers be chastised in hell
May our descendants roam free sans fear
May we have the strength to shatter this steel shell
