I was just a soldier
I did nothing wrong
I stood guard on the land
To me that did belong
I was just human
Not aware what war is for ?
I took an oath though
To fight till death
For my people’s honour
I was naive to fight
For people who didn’t
Fathom why I died
For a war that wasn’t just right
For some it was an atrocity
A propaganda to stick minority
For some it was just
I don’t know what it was for me
I just dived in waters deep
Shallow ungainly like a valley steep
Uphill I went some ten thousand feet
With five living relics of courage and valor in my fleet
Next thing I saw was bullets piercing
Through flesh and bones
Spilling blood and mucus
We felt surrounded, enemy was in hiding
Numbers stacked against us
We chose to fight
Five against a horde of five hundred men
That too in a firefight
Is always a poor sight
I didn’t lose hope
Neither did my men
Ripped a hundred hearts apart
Before two died in vain
My bullets ended
And so did my lady luck
Captured alive, I was
Kept safe for lame culling
Like a doe eyed duck
My three pillars of strength stood by me
When I lay abandoned
On the steps of destiny
Murmured my brother soldier
After endless and inhuman torture
“Is this the price we pay ?
Left dying life an unknown martyr ?”
I looked at him
His bones broken, lips cut
His fingers chopped, his eardrums pierced
Eyeballs missing and shattered trust
I said to him
” Dear pal ! We fight for the meek.
It’s their victory, that we seek.
Ours is not to question why
Ours is not to eke out a sigh
Ours is to fight fire with fire
Ours is not to reason why
Ours is not to abandon thy
Holy path of martyerdom
That’s all we should
As a soldier desire”
Their bodies were returned to the state
When spineless leaders were locked
In a quagmire of meaningless debate
Tortured to the Hell, all were in dreaded state
Some missed toes, some missing limbs
Some clipped lips and some clipped wings
Some organs chopped and some skulls cracked
Some eyes missing and some hearts were missing
Only the hatred remained intact
That too was laid to dust
In coffins that were riddled with bribing locusts
Only hope was plea for justice
That too died
When invertibrae termites bit it to sawdust
It was a fight where
Nobody knew who gained what
And who gained where
I know now, just that
Shrieks of some tortured souls
Lay still in atmosphere
Their families left ungrieved
And their bodies left unmourned
I lay my tribute to thousands of those fathers
Whose martyr sons lay dead
Eyes waiting for the door
To be opened with an unexpected return
And tears that were left unshed
When a piece of thee heart
Their bone and flesh
Is abandoned and left for dead
The letter delivered after his death
With a bullet shattering his head
He wrote
“Don’t mourn after me”
I will die here today
Pray for those who didn’t”
A small tribute to million bravehearts who have fought for the country and who still await recognition as a martyr in a country where powerful are powerless when it comes to giving martyrs their due.
A tribute to the unsung hereos…
