The Lost (Last) War

Too young to understand
the Emergency,
not obsessed with the First Family either,
I still mourned
the death of a dynamic leader,
a woman.
I shed tears with her son
as he watched his mother
on her final journey.

I grieved again
when the images
splashed a cruelly blown apart body
of an upcoming leader -
naivety and grace his charm
leaving behind
a widowed wife
and fatherless children.
'Who is to blame?'
I wondered then.

Over the years,
across the border,
innocent children, immature teenagers
forced to give up on living
by killing.
Brain washed and
Conscience drained
they fought for a cause
with hurt and humiliation.
I wondered again -
'Is this not atrocity?'

"He fought for the others."
I hear voices echo.
But what of the ones
who did not wish to fight
yet, dragged in all the blood and mire?
What about the thousands of youngsters
who lost family, childhood and life
for a lost cause?

If it was his personal war,
an ideology,
it should have stayed at that.
Didn't he realize
that blowing up people's lives
which he did not create
would only one day,
drag him to
a desolate, disgusting and disastrous fate?