What's Life Worth?

As the noise increased,
People were running helter-skelter:
Mothers shouting the names of their children
To make sure they are all in the house,
Possibly under the bed;
Fathers shouting at the entire family
For silence, as if that will stem the bomb 
And automatic rifle explosions 
That truncated the evening peace of the 
Once sleepy city.

I tried to call my friends
But the network companies have joined 
The attackers in shutting the entire town off.
No call could go out and none could come in.
We were officially incommunicado.
And as I looked at the horizon of the fast fading daylight
I could see the hellish glittering of heavy blasts
As my eardrums are shattered with the sound.
I wouldn't blame daylight for taking such a fast retreat
Being afraid of its own life as we all are

No one seems to know what's going on
Speculations are rife in the neighbourhood
The sound concentrates on one part of town
As we could hear as the whole city is being blown to pieces
But no one is sure of who is shooting who
And I wondered: who is shooting who?
Are these explosions and gunfire pointed to the sky?
Are there not people like you and I being despatched 
To their maker with each bullet that escapes
Or each heavy artillery that quakes the ground we tread

Soon it stopped. Four whole hours of war-front like bombardment
And the following day, comes the curfew: 24 hours
No way of knowing what happened or who was killed
And out of curiosity, I ventured out
Just to make sure that humans aren't part of the dead
How wrong I was; scores of humans mowed down
Being loaded into open trucks like logs of wood
And while trying to take pictures, a soldier catches me
First hand, I knew what life is worth: NOTHING!
No dog, hen, goat or rat was caught, but poor me!

Comments

Anonymous said…
Nice one. So many thgs r wrong wiv dis country.
23 October 2012 at 00:25
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