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K Balachandran Apr 2015
A baby girl gently smiles in sleep
a young woman clad in military fatigue,
in a war zone, somewhere, for now quiet,
startled, not knowing why, wakes up,
the baby dreams a yellow butterfly
alighting on a bright red flower,
when mama was carrying her around
in a bid to put her to sleep, slapping
gently on her bottom; sleepy eyes close.
The 'woman soldier' (an oxymoron
for all those who could think)  a mother to boot,
is thinking about the plummentting population
of monarch butterflies, in the woods she once roamed,
the town she grew up, she now misses, in her thoughts flap wings.
She is worried about the change of climate,
though all she thinks is about the plight of the butterflies.

Now, she hears a gun shot at distance,
shudders thinking about the children
sleeping under the blankets, expecting no harm.
She imagines a baby smiling, gently in it's sleep
and on the shades of that memory, she feels calm,
gripping at the handle of the machine gun,
kept ready at hand to fire first at an enemy, any time.

One talks about peace, as fear gnaws deep at the heart,
the flame of love is  protected by cupped female hands
children securely sleep,in the  protective heat of mother's breast,
rise and fall of the *******, the smell of milk,enveloping my body,
til the day in my mother I  was enshrined in,
                                                                      I still can trace in my brain.

The woman soldier, may fall dead,hit  by a bullet
intentional or not.A war is a war, even a butterfly killed,
is considered enemy, at that time and place.It's grammar is hate.
The baby may have to live, for ever not seeing her mother,
who in the scene above was absent, may not return, ever.
The monarch butterflies would die in thousands and fall from skies.

We still try to cry, but there isn't any tear,climatic change burns eyes.
It's night, a pale moon mourns for the orange sun of the evening.
when the climatic change strikes, it's not in one place or time.
it erupts all over the globe, hearts bleed, love dies little by little.
In the crisp of morning, does edge of rest approach. For in the tents of great men do the warriors awaken in preparation for battle.

Sharpening their swords, fortifying their shields, girding their spears and dawning their armours - a crest for honour. Though amid the steadiness, do they await the word of their beloved monach.

"Sar-Shalom!" be the cries heard, echoeing upon the voices of the wind. Reaching even beyond the battlefields. The name of the monach, adored by the great men, anticipating the words to come.

Alas, wisdom comes on the voice of the wind: "In the vallies, will you victories come". Bewildered they stood, asking themselves "why?" But, their monach adorned in their love does their loyalty stand.

So, to the vallies do they march. Upon the word do they stand, anticipation honoured by their trust. For a hard battle will they fight, yet a grand victory will they know - a relief from their beloved.

From the peaks do they descend, and to the vallies do they arrive. The battlefield marked for honour by their seeing eyes;
Unsheathing are they ready, for the accusers come - but unexpecting are they, for the assurance declared in the meeting of blades.

The divines surrounding their accusers, is the battle endorsed for the victors. As they cut down even their final Goliaths. In the praises given up on the voices of the wind, does Sar-Shalom hear the chants - His great men, now the victories of Eden.

Now the journey do they cherish, in returning to their home. The tents of great men, now victories on the heights. What more shall be done? But to sing in glee. For the enemies borders are lost in the restoring victory.

Their wounds shall heal, and bruises shall fade, but the songs of glee shall ring out through time, eternal;
Oh, the voices of the winds chant forever "Victory in the Vallies!"
Daniel Kareski Jul 2015
The first step is admitting you own nothing.
You have borrowed a vessel of perpetual motion,
transforming matter into joy. Or sorrow.
You prepare a lament for
every object being shrunk in volume  
to the point of liquefied singularity.
Your soul resembles a berseked monach
harpuned by the overflowing thoughts
of a whole world outside his sacred temple,
rediscovering GOD through a moment of NO BIG TRUTH.
Every item is handelled with utmost care.
Every hour of every day carefully measured,
overligned, overlived, predicted,
enjoyed to the highest crest of pleasures.
The excitement turns you into a dormant rage
of two incandescent lovers, sharing their last kiss.
A particular moving object (which borrows your empirical mass)
runs away over roads and tracks and clouds and temples,
from the decay measured in seconds of standstill, if at all present.
You left the last version of yourself at the doorstep.
The footsteps on the street are an echo of
your forthcoming change. Your exhaltation.
How am I supposed to fight this disposition,
the everpresent catarsys in each corner of the soul,
as the end is postpond by the black guitar’s lament
in the indigenous version of history.
Sometimes things overlap without obvious reasons.
Sometimes the foundations of our sorrow -
buried deep into everday house hold objects,
is the only threat which holds the secret
to the way back.
To the memories bookmarked in your going-away-ness.
To the saved points in your story
(to which you could return back in case of a disaster).
Like a tale, in which the bad prevails,
but
as she lays in your arms,
in a particularly ephemeral moment
all that matters in the end
is the desired absence of space
‘tween the most lonely abbrevations of
the two of you.
A Sri Lanka trip sublimated in words.

— The End —