The Universal Soldier Poem by Sourav Majumdar

In the sand and rubble of the Sahara
where schimitars clashed with steely gleam,
Stallions galloped and Bare backed warriors rode out
to fulfill the boy Pharoah's cherished dream.
Fortresses rumbled, in the shade of the Pyramids
lay hundreds of corpses dried by the hot desert Sun
Food for the desert hyaenas
who beat the vultures to their game

...I fought along the reed ridden banks of the Nile..
Thebes....Insanity
The lust which rose with the rising sun
lay encrusted in Man's Mind
Never to fade with the setting sun again.

A thousand years later in the plains of Kalinga
a lone king trudged in an empty battlefield..
His feet squelching with the bloody grime.
Rivulets of blood lay beside defamed warriors
Defamed Honor..

...I lay with my jade stone sword hilt
flashing with the ever reminding Sun...
My blood stained blade having won and lost, both
My Honor and My Life...

A hundred years later, the concept was new
Buzzing squadrons dropped bombs, lethal weaponry
sprayed innocent fire as the Fuehrer
reached out to tame the other, few
Countries that defied His Ideology

...I sped along Flamengo Street in Brunne..
My machine gun exploding the terraces with fire
spitting lead slugs into bodies of foes and friends alike..
Paranoid...
My sniper's gun breathed with life itself
terminating lives of others.

Fifty years down the line
in a lone hut tucked away in some
forsaken mountains in the Himalayas
Kashmir...
An old man and few armed others discussed..
Their Jihad..
Tentacles spreading into Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Chechnya..

...I lay in ambush for the border patrol
My hand clutching the last of grenades
My Life for My Religion....

I asked after each War, why we Fought, What we Fought for?

The answer resounded
'We fought through decades, centuries and millenia,
For Patriotism, for Ideologies or for
Unheralded Heroics..
We Fought
For the generations that may
or may not
want to face the Blood Splattered
Earth we left them..
or may be,
maybe
Almost every time,
we fought
For
The truth that never was.'