War appears blind Like Homer;
the lines of control shimmer
like Helen,
to stay alive here is fancy smitten.
Every moment of suffering,
staggers inch by inch, crawling.
Dumb breath facing blanket firing
feed the helpless flame of human cry.

To choose between ration and ammunition,
Sustaining life is only an intuition.
Food packs or bullets
a burning irony to select.
Triumph in war flutter
in the wind beaten National Flag
Victories and defeats, history discover
in green silence of graves, long after.

Consuming fragments of streams,
patches of clumsy meadows and dreams,
Some chunks of valleys and hollows
a few border settlement follows,
blasting off ancient towns,
demolishing relics and monuments, war crowns
victory hoisting fame and sacrifice
patriotism boils in more spice.

My sudden home coming
with my legs amputated,
my sprained life hesitated
in the sudden change
tossing and turning in my awful existence.
The absent limbs throbbed
pulsing and fluttering, they sobbed
helpless at the hacked off ends.

How blissful and simple
is to be able
to walk without being disable.
In the sudden change
my living became a plight.
I spread as a dark ray of light
through the corridor of time's flight,
through a void of being alive.

©Kakoli Ghosh, 2020
(Showcased in The Writers Club, 8/8/2020)

PC: Kausik Das