IS THE WAR REALLY OVER ? ... (Vijay Nikore)

[vijay nikore]

IS  THE WAR  REALLY  OVER ?

 

Did you hear them say, "the war is over" ?

 

Sun scorched fields

skulls decomposing

empty shells everywhere.

Soldiers telling tales of horror

of lives that once were 'our'

ringing the eerie air;

their shadowy expressions

etching subtle last impressions

of scores of lives lost in vain unsung.

 

Markers here, everywhere,

of who died, why and where.

They may seem important to us, but

to time it matters not, it does not care,

who won or who lost, or was it even fair;

for after all the battles have been fought

and we hear the Generals triumphantly declare,

"This war is over"

Is when the real war begins....

 

This real war is the one of chilling apathy,

of dying art of compassion, of lost empathy.

Ripples of fear nudging the deep centre; cruel

to children trembling of acute malnutrition,

frozen faces belie their fears, bellies swollen,

their open eyelids begging for love and adoption.

Poverty heaped on poverty, 'otherness' abounds,

a curse we do not admit though really it astounds.

Yet at some fateful boundary the Generals declare

"The war is over".

 

The real war has really just begun.

 

                            --------

                                                      --  Vijay Nikore

 

(original and unpublished)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Usha Taneja]

This is the war
That never ends,
Only is the view
That ever bends.

They say it is
The hour of peace,
Just then we see
Head(s) in piece.

It's good idea
It may seem,
So that people(s)
Do not scream.

But,
Brothers are lost
Behind the curtain,
Otherwise they were
Brothers in certain.

Why they lay
Across the lines,
To kill each other
Under bomb mines?

Original and unpublished
Written just now.

[vijay nikore]

Respected Usha ji:

 

What a beautiful fitting encore to the sentiment of the poem above !

I totally resonate with your expression.

 

//Why they lay
Across the lines,
To kill each other
Under bomb mines//

It is a real life situation, repeating itself.

 

Beyond the war at battle-front, there are

brothers at daggers drawn, their sentiments

subordinated to financial or family feuds.

 

Unity/peace  between countries or families

is not inevitable, and yet it seems so distant

a reality.

 

Congratulations to you for your fine expression above.

 

Regards,

Vijay

 

[Vindu Babu]

Respected sir,
this is the real cause as problem is spreading day by day.Don't know THEY are unknow or they declare 'war is over'after knowing all or...the fateful boundries bound them to peer.
Sir very nice presentation of pathetic condition in sonorous tone.


"Soldiers telling tales of horror
of lives that once were 'our'"...beautiful.

congratulations for this dazzling poem.

respected usha ji i appreciate your poetical comment.

regards
-vandana

[vijay nikore]

Respected Vandana ji:

Yes, the war, no matter where, whether collective or individual, has always affected me emotionally. May be it is because I am a product of the partition of 1947, carrying some images of horror; and desperation and depravation of humanity.

 

My humble gratitude to you for your appreciation.

 

Regards.

Vijay