Humanity Strips Poem by Chaitali Bose Bhattacharjee

Children of nine and ten,
tender and scared
frozen in fear,
blood smeared.
Weeping anxiously
terror stricken tear.
The hapless gory witnesses
with blank stare.
The illusive line between
life and death,
promise and despair
swings unaware.
Is that fair!
They said
everything is fair
in love and war.
We are fallen messiahs
in a mission
to salvage and devour.

Women of twenty and thirty;
That gaze in their eyes
infused with dread and horror.
Grieving mother
Mourning wife
Distraught sister.
No words of assurance can heal
their loss or impair.
Forlorn soul
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 said
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-
Innocence killed.
Apathy revealed.

Wars with disillusioned mission,
Pleading for life,
empathy and vision.
They said
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.
With charred conscience
mayhem creeps,
Humanity strips
in Gaza Strip.
And they said
everything is fair
in love and war
Truth is
unfair is unfair,
You call it
Love or War.