A War –that Is Poem by Sadiqullah Khan

I had better need recalling
A battlefield, stupendous with cries of dead,
Mystified rage, blood-letting groves
Young men, for want of doing anything worthwhile
Broad chested, long bearded, earning fame
What had been taught, a Freudian interpretation
Killing, and three thousand bullets from the muzzle
Is self assertion, starting with a holy chant,
Returning victorious, men-like.

On the edges of the one, sleeping eternal wrath,
Leaving behind an array of war, he could do nothing
But sleep among them. His bones turning stones,
Underneath a tomb, I saw years later. The great
Soul, preached temperance, preached love
Non-violence, -a universal conspiracy, an American war.

The ignoble victory brought a self exiled perpetrator
Sitting cozy, eating boiled eggs, with fried bread.
On these paths, soldiers wearing big caps
Dragging their injured legs, by dry streams, dying
A remembered death, a daughter’s love, his wife
All belongings on her head, running to a camp
To die by a bullet, or by disease.

A one, who had been fighting his smallness
To turn big, swallow the world’s riches, hold all power
By the maximum, short-cut means, turning coats
Now and then, -a prototype, cunning, without any ideal
A soul, under-nourished, a heart to dominate, earn fame.
The man of the time, Buddha would have liked him
To convert, to save humanity, from the carnage.
Belatedly, from a perverse instinct, he penned
Butcher-axed, by the dictator’s side, abrogation of statutes.

The others and some turned to politics, wearing
Ropes, around their necks, chains under flowers
The civic society’s leaders, some generals, others
Content with having fought the holy war
And now, turned upon themselves, eating up
Fifty thousand and a few more hundred thousand
Flesh and bone, human beings. This is no times for wars
All wars, ended, and this war, shall never end.

Sadiqullah Khan
Islamabad
December 3,2013.

An Iraqi boy is seen through the window of a mini bus targeted by roadside bomb.
Photograph by Ahmed Al Rubaye @ National Geographic