Eighty Lines

A little bucket lying across the well,

Tumbled on its weight and looking west,

The moist soil beneath and uprooted grass,

There was a man around here you can guess.

Oh yes we can see a man of about forty and three,

Curled and mudded in the sand behind the bush.

His curly grey hair’s shining in fading light,

Whether his life has also faded, is still there to see

Winds are blowing with the song of the fall.

Soon the cold winter will speak in the voice so hoarse.

Sun seem tired after a day of hide and seek,

With our long shadows we made a loud call.

We saw the head rise with the pace of a lazy snail.

It mumbled few words that no one can hear.

Ahoy stranger we speak to you, one of us yelled,

Are you hurt or drunk, how you came to vale.

The stranger spoke with a voice of a hammer on nail,

Pausing and starting then stopping when lost again.

I am a soldier folks who fought your bloody war,

Now I am banished   tell me that I failed.

We gave him some water as he tried to find his feet,

He swerved around for a moment but then fell again in heap.

My misery brought me here, we heard him grunting,

Chastened with shame, for days I could not sleep.

I had killed so many those bodies with no name,

Enemies they were and for me all the same,

I wanted to shoot and kill as many as I could

So Proud and presumptuous of my growing fame.

We stood still in awe as his cleared his throat.

His face carried the marks of the wars he had fought

Then there came a day when it all crumbled down,

Misery came to me with the enemy I had caught.

It was the space between us and them   my comfort zone,

When its mere dummies made of flesh and bone,

My bullets rammed them hard on my glory days,

But for that pale little boy I caught I wish was never born.

Little boy only in name, he shot three of us in war,

Left alone he kept shooting, he wanted to kill many more.

With the rage in his eyes and the blood all over

He threatened, he fought, he screamed and he roared.

Out of bullets he got caught, still looking eye to eye,

Fear was not a word for him its pleasure to see enemy die.

Tie him up and bring him here let’s see what he is made of,

So said the Colonel sending the puff to the sky.

He was tied and beaten so much that his body collapsed

But he never asked for any mercy before his senses passed.

Colonel stood up and asked me with an anguished face,

Put him where he belongs, bury him in the waste.

I dragged the boy with me to the bushes still can hear him breathe

The soldier is there to follow the orders don’t let doubt to creep

Kill me if you want old man a boy the age of your son,

Heard you are a proud soldier but your bravery is finger deep.       

So he mumbled, the boy I was about to kill

He laughed at me and said why I am waiting still,

You never blinked when you killed my father

And many more while shelling our village for thrill.

My father was a farmer tending his field in sun,

Mother was at home they never held a gun,

You killed them both and made me an orphan at twelve

Made me what I am today till death will I burn.

For the years I had fought this bloody war.

I never saw a human in enemy just a target to kill,

Boy’s words screamed in my head as I stood to shoot

My hand shook as I fought my demons long kept so far.

That moment of weakness I dropped my guard,

You can guess what happened next.

The boy snatched my gun and killed my junior

And killed two more before he was dead.

He could have killed me too as I stood there in trance

He made a choice to die instead leaving for his mother’s arms

Colonel banished me from Unit blamed me for all those dead,

But he sparing my life that day broke me in threads

So here I am drunk and lost finding my reason to live,

When I know I killed so many the sin could never shed.

The old man dropped his head again in now dryer mud,

Go home and leave me here, I will stay alive.

Many have left the scene already and I stood up to leave,

Thinking again about his story if his life mirrors his deeds.

Yesterday’s I read in papers that the old man has died,

Today I got a letter saying it’s my turn to shine .