The Warrior Weeps

After the adrenaline had drained And the noise of battle abated Focus of the eyes widened The spread of the aftermath comes into focus

And the ears open up to the sounds Of the wailing mothers And the orphaned children Wandering aimlessly searching Arms held out with twisted faces

And the sanity of normality torn asunder As rubbles of homes fill the streets With arid air pungent with death The veil of morality shredded There he stands

The warrior surveys his work As the expanse of mortality narrows And the currency of survival is to fled Among the carnage the mangled bodies Innocent and blameless Seemingly sleeping in eternal bliss

The maddened skelter of women and children A colourful painting Of the numb forces of war Theatres of war are painted with flesh and blood Obliviously in harms way

With Lifeless eyes staring back As mangled children assault the senses The horrid smell of gunpowder Arms stretched orphans approaching A Young mother clasping her lifeless child The scatter of lifeless brothers in arms

He shuts his eyes and turns his back On the senseless price of war And the human inside

weeps at the efficiency of his work

Andrew Okri