“War is what happens when language fails.” – Margaret Atwood
Humanity Strips
Children of nine and ten
Tender and scared
Frozen in fear
Blood smear.
Weeping anxiously
Terror stricken tear.
The gory witnesses,
With blank stare.
The illusive line between
Life and death,
Promises and despair
Swings unaware.
Is that fair!
They say
everything is fair
In love and war.
We are fallen messiahs
In a mission
To salvage and devour.
Women of twenty and thirty
That look in their eyes
Infused with dread and horror.
Grieving mother
Mourning wife
Distraught sister
No words of assurance
can fill their
loss or impair.
Broken heart
Amidst those wasted prayer.
Is that fair!
Men of thirty and forty
Lost limbs
Numb consciousness
Damaged spirit
Feeding on abjectness.
Hopes shattered
Too hapless to dare
Wounded morale
Beyond repair.
Is that fair!
They say
everything is fair
In love and war.
We are fallen messiahs
In a mission
To salvage and devour.
Death falls from the sky
With bombs, missiles and rocket.
And sometimes comes
Gushing from the street
As a cold blooded docket.
Smells of explosives all around
With drones buzzing
Rupturing the shrill sound.
Trees fall,
Wall collapses,
Homes in debris,
Safest harbour relapses.
Roads desolate
With clothes spilled.
a fractured plastic toy
In middle of a lane
Apathy revealed
Innocence killed.
Multiple wars
With disillusioned mission,
Pleading for life,
Empathy and vision.
They say
everything is fair
In love and war.
We are fallen messiah
In a mission
To salvage and devour.
Conflict becomes omnipresent
Discord and disagreement.
Death penetrates
Hatred resplendent.
Charred conscience
Mayhem creeps
Humanity Strips
In Gaza Strip.
And they say
everything is fair
In love and war
Truth is
Unfair is unfair
You call it
Love or War.
