1c. Karna, Yellow Star

I am a yellow star

I’m the king of restraint
I conquer time, I conquer pain
I set my heart into a fallen reign

I honor rules of engagement
I’m the strongest link in the weakest chain
My bloodline stained into the falling rays

I always thought I can be the one to fire missiles like the sun
I find my worth, I burn the earth

In a putrid ditch I was purged inside my low birth
I claw out of the dirt, I’m in a Ganga gulch

In this world where everyone knows what's best for me
War, the language I must speak

But I am Resistance, I persist in the final solution
I’ll never be what they want until I’m dead

I focused all my angst on brotherhood, self inflicted wounds
It felt like god had broken all the rules

I was ability
Had Surya’s reach
Near endless energy
But a codified nobility
Fossilized mobility
Slipped me out
I slid down a blood soaked, red parted sea

Discriminated
Caste-rated
Predefined
Crucified

I try to bridge the four divides

My yellow star, I wear it everywhere
When time circles around
You’ll hear of me again

I was the rising king
I held the sting
They cowered in fear with what I can withstand
The world and wasp on my lap
An arrow in my back
A folded golden flag
I end where I began

I end where I began

A saffron letter on my chest
It’s cast into my steel
It’s like a weakened heel
A broken wheel

I was left for dead
I’m on a river bed, floating
The same way I was born
A permanent scar of existence

In this world where the acceptable are susceptible
Defensible, dispensable
Amenable, amendable
Commendable, expendable

I declare independence
From the grounds of condescension
As my descendants take my place, fill my space
In the darkness beyond the sky