The Kabul Pain Poem by Sujit Sinha

My heart felt like a stone
Mind sank in to a freeze,
The news has spread,

A bomb blew
Thirty and two cadets,
Into smithereens.


Those that have gone are
People of past
Army lads fated to

Part with their bayonets before
They raised their barrels,

Fated to fade before the combat


Fathers have bowed before

The ground where
Their bodies were said to be
And near the place

They tie a black cloth each,

To the witnesses of the massacre,

The branches of the lone pavid tree.


The last remembrance of their dead boy,
Hang dull and greyed

Under the lone splendid summer sun

Sans humour and joy.


The plinth you level today
Braces the columns of tomorrow.
The now of life
Is the womb of destiny.


Make peace not war
Make peace not war.

[This is a real incident in which 32 cadets were blown to bits in a suicide attack on 2nd october 2007 near a tree on Salang Watt in Kabul]