TRAGEDY OF HUMANITY

(This composition is aiming at the horrendous war situations in and around the Middle East.)

“Looking around 
The battle scene was harsh, 

Bodies lay scattered on the ground, 

With the nauseating scent of blood, 

Surrounding me. 

I can hardly see, 

For smoke blinds my eyes, 

And as I look around, 

My heart sinks, 

And is filled with sorrow, sorrow …..”

By Alexis Malina 

ARMS AND TRAGEDY OF MANKIND

Dulal Ch. Bandyopadhyay

Put the knife in the sheath or in scabbard the sword ;

But remember, they are made of bloodthirst,  

And for decapitating, tearing asunder or to kill. 

Weapons bear in and with them our cruel intention. 

A boy with his toy-gun aims at a bird or a lizard ; 

Until his conscience gives birth to Love in his heart. 

No mortal knows of the aim in creating ‘Frankenstein’, 

But, for an instant only, he knows and light goes dim, 

And goes out forever, as the lightning lightens –  

The thunderbolt leaves the thunderstruck dead! 

Oh ! what a death, too brief and too insensate ! 

Before counting down seconds of impending doom, 

Count the mass-graves and piles of funeral ashes

That, man have sacrificed to Ares, the War God, 

Annihilating civilizations, one followed by another, 

Yet His thirst for blood remains unquenchable.  

When wisdom, in league with evil spirit,

And abides in and by a swooning demonocracy, 

Brings forth such fiendish spears that pierce  

The breast of God and herald as the Satan does --

“It is better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” 

O, The Son of God, Resurrect thy soul once again

Not at the stable, but in the conscience

of Man.

__________

1. The quoted line is from 'Paradise Lost', by John Milton. 

2. Ares = Ancient Greek God of war, son of Zeus and Hera, personifies sheer brutality and bloodlust. 

3. Some revered religious communities bear arms, (swords and daggers) following their cult and culture individually or in solemn processions. Some ancient aborigines too, do the same. The subject, as well as, the theme of my poem is based only on warfare and arms for holocaust, mass destruction.

4. Edited and republished (23/12/2023)

Dulal Ch. Bandyopadhyay, 

25-02-2022 

Bangalore .