An Elegy to Peace

In the graveyard of sin
Peace lies buried again
After dying a million deaths
With its bloodied comrades
Hope, faith, and harmony
The blazing fiend of hatred
Roams around naked
Feeding on the last fragment
Of another body burnt to dust
A bewildered soul hovers
Eyes awash with fading tears!

Prayers have lost their way
Melancholy clouds sweep away
Even the incessant rain
Cannot wash away the stain
Of the blood of innocents
Unheard, unwanted, undead
From an ochre land of depravity
The burning pyre of humanity
Our Earth is now parched
Throttled with rust and dust
What elixir will quench its thirst?

The contagion of hatred
Flows in their veins, unabated
The rulers and their courtiers
And their blistering madness
Hardened hearts, spreading fear
Reigning with violent terror
Pieces of white, pale as death
Kings, slaves, on a chessboard set
Men fleeting, floating, drowning
Somewhere a child washed ashore
A broken doll with owner no more!

Listless hearts pound
In time with the funeral band
Wails and howls, rend the skies
Laments fail, fall on deaf ears
Lost in the screaming headlines
Carnage, pillage, blinding pellets
Flaming fires of disharmony
Mowing down, blasting, bombing
Desperate, despondent, helpless
Humanity breathes its last
Broken, alone in a hospital bed!

Merchants of doom
Selling salves for the gloom
Twines that held together
Ripped, shredded, asunder
Pick up the fragile strands
Weave them into shrouds.
Questions galore resound
Will he live; Is he dead yet
None answer; eyes then wander
To the writing on the wall –
Clear, bold – Silence Please!

So we embrace the silence
Words lost in defiance
For we can never answer
Innocence of our children
Asking how to celebrate life
In this world of bloody strife
How to eradicate this misery
Heal our wounded community
Pitted against each other, we seek
Promises of potions sweet
A sip from the chalice of Peace?