The Futility Of War Poem by RONY PATRA

The sun is receding from the sky,
Which is now painted a deep crimson red
But the blood of bodies lying, left to die
Have filled this red sky with unease and dread

For, a few hours ago, a battle was fought
One side was victorious, the other was mercilessly defeated
But the value of human life came to nought
Jesus’ maxim, “Love thy neighbour” was severely dented

Among the battered bodies, a soldier rises from the ground
With great discomfiture, and holds his bruised knee
He looks around at the destruction and carcasses strewn all around
And it is only then that he starts crying inconsolably

For he is all alone, in this desolate picture of heartache and grief
He starts looking at one bloody corpse after another
For his friends and comrades, with whom his association was brief
And then he, with watery eyes, looks at the body of his brother

His brother had just joined service, he had not served in the regiment long
But Fate and Death selected him, and played a cruel joke
With his brother, with whom the soldier would sometimes sing a song
And when catching him rob apples red-handed, his ribs he would gently poke

It is only now that the lonely soldier realizes
How utterly futile it is to fight a war!
He surveys the dead fathers, sons and brothers of all sizes
He regrets his mistake, the rest of the world he wants peace for

And then he decides to do something in this endeavour, there and then
He will preach to the world the foolishness of battles
He does not exactly know how, where and when
But nobody can stop a man’s resolve, when his conscience rattles

War is NOT a necessary evil, it can be stopped
Peace and dialogue have never hurt Mother Earth
For it is better, than to have bodies mercilessly chopped
That, to a new happy world, we give a grand new birth