For far too long
We have sung empty songs
Written speeches heavy with words
That never fed a single dream
We always claimed to know
A woman’s “right place”
As if freedom were a favor
And not her birthright
Her life cannot be mended on paper
It is in classrooms and libraries
In skills sharpened like blades
In suits, not aprons, worn with pride
In Kabul, doors stay locked
Dreams are chained at the gate
A girl stares at her books
While the world debates her fate
But now is the time
Not to sing, not to stall
But to place a desk and computer
Where the kitchen fire once ruled.
Have you seen what's going on
in Afghanistan
and all that's gone wrong
caused by the Taliban
driving the country
into rack and ruin
with impunity
is what they're doing
it's what they've done
it would be good
to put them on the run
better yet eliminate
those Barbarians at the gate
yes it would be best
to dress each one
in a suicide vest
then blow their tiny minds
up the Khyber to Kingdom Come
All decisions are made
at a desk in another country.
They pass through
‘in’ and ‘out’ trays,
collecting signatures along the way.
Then, one day,
they become a concrete wall,
where once a few
tired weeds grew.
Afghanistan, 2017
First published in Blue Minaret
I only hear your children weep,
I only have their dreams.
I do not pray my soul to keep,
For mine has split its seams.
I only see what your eyes see,
Your blood upon my hilt,
For though you were my enemy,
Your death brings me great guilt.
I laugh with rapture, unawake,
An eerie sort of sign.
The lives in war I had to take
Seem well a price for mine,
And yet I’ll never pay that cost,
But try to live for right.
If future wars are won or lost,
Find me not in that fight.
I swore to never kill again,
A sacred vow was made
Inside my soul, and not for men,
And for that magic paid.
But killed by greed, my vow undone,
T’was for a death I prayed!
But for my prayer, the other one –
Kismet – to rest was laid.
Haunted by those ended lives,
I’ve tried to do some good.
I’m still the same, I still survive,
And with a soldier’s blood.
But I don’t pray my soul to keep,
For I still see their dreams.
I only hear your children weep,
And always will, it seems.
Sometimes I think about the past,
The life we knew would never last,
And all the men we used to kill,
And that great void they used to fill,
And that great spell we used to cast.
Under the sun and in the heat,
Our enemies dead at our feet,
I thought I’d die there in the sand,
And for the future never planned.
But still, those memories are sweet.
We bravely answered battle’s call,
Brothers, sisters, family all
Who know when I say sacrifice
I speak of those who gave their lives
And with their deaths our own would stall.
Those to whom that life appeals,
The ones whose fractures souls war steals
Will never after be the same,
For some win glory, some win shame,
And yet each shattered soul still feels.
I still feel it to the bone,
The shame of taking lives unknown.
Unnamed and faceless men were they,
Their crime was getting in my way;
For their deaths I can’t atone.
I visit graves of brothers still,
Those who died by war and will
As well as those I loved and lost
And those who paid the greatest cost,
And all the men we used to kill.
Imagine being female
In a Taliban regime,
Where equal rights do not exist,
Except when women dream.
Shariah law has taken hold,
With floggings taking place
For girls or women who have dared
To show the world their face.
Schools and universities
Say females can’t attend
And there’s no indication that
These rules will ever end.
In life, our path’s determined
Partly by the place we’re born.
For women in Afghanistan,
Their chances we must mourn.
There are some things I just don't get
And never understand
Six more dead from Yorkshire's moors
Blown up in Afghanistan.
The war on terror can't be won
How can we be so blind
Can't we see that we can't win
Without changing hearts and minds ?.
Whatever belief you declare
How are these your pranks
You blow up boys in uniform
Then you give God thanks !.
Note : 6 men (5 were younger than 22 years old) were targeted & blown up by the Taliban. All were from Yorkshire. When is it gonna stop?
Glimpse the state of a nation
~ at its Independence Day Parades
Between Iraq OEF and Afghanistan ISAF I did about 120 months OCONUS..
A peculiarity about Bagram Airfield which housed about 40,000 people, mostly US enlisted soldiers from all 5 groups and the off shoots.. Well, obviously there were a bunch of horny kids with high testosterone on both sides of the fence and sleazy third country nationals .. It was no secret that some of the fat s.kanks from the US Army were there to make a buck.. Most US enlisted person in uniform had to wear a reflector belt at all times, pigs that were selling it wore 'pink belts'... no one else would be caught dead.. These ' women ' made a pile of money.. From what i heard, $150 USD per throw.. these skanks, and there were hundreds, easily raked in five times there take home per day, minimum.. frankly i cant the blame them... good lord they were hideous..
Bagram airfield the Ugandans handled the bomb dogs.. heading back to my CHU after a mission i would see them for their morning walks.. one dog famously wore motorcycle goggles, story is he took a blast of rocks in the face and survived but was partially blinded.. apparently his sniffer still worked and he could see well enough to do his job.. cool doggy
There were 40,000 people on that base and most armed to the teeth. several thousand were local nationals. Trucks in and out all day.. those dogs were a necessity, god love em. i played with them as often as i could. The Ugandan dudes were cool as f' ...
Dot To Dot
Join the dots all in a line
Where do they all lead?
Afghanistan
Land of failed empires
Defeated armies
Opium production
Terrorism central
Forget Lebanon
Afghan is number one
Ever since the 70s
The Soviets started it
All the rest added to it
You know the nations
Shall we bet who’s next?
from LIZARD SNAIL 124K
Nick Armbrister and other writers
Huuuwiii !! Huuuwiii cry for Education,
Grils and women in bad condition,
Anger and emotion,
In the suburbs and cities of various direction,
International community handle this situation,
It has become a problem for the old Guard,
To let women and girls to become girl- guide,
Girls education is wide,
But the old guard eliminate girls to spread,
International community figh very hard,
Since the old guard took over,
Girls are not in school ever,
Some women are not at work forever,
Who will give them a favour,
To be employed again morever,
International community handle the matter
Of Girl education which is in scatter,
Talk to the old guard better,
Talk with them now not later,
To let girls finish their education better,
Afghanistan
Haiku by: Tom
9-10-21
Leave no one behind;
an unwritten rule of war
not lately followed.
ideals to inspire soldiers
when 9/11 spewing black clouds meant a
complicated revenge
defeat terrorists, take out bin Laden
remake a country in democratic vestments
golden good intentions that lose their way in
an undertow of violence
the bones of wartime, bullets of combat carnage
Taliban insurgents hide and seek in Pakistan
militants wait to impose their laws
as a regime falls, unhinged by corruption
unwilling to fire a shot
swift capitulation like jaws snapping shut
US departure, flawed
dangles like severed wires
refugees stampede
flee the bondage of remaining
evacuation - a spreading blood stain, chaotic
Afghanistan intervention, no sound preconditions
for success
in an end game that had no ending?
just more of the same?
achievements of 20 years
seep through outstretched hands
like heated wars
storms of desert sand
that fixate on what cannot be changed
Poem composed September 5/21
For Afghanistan Poetry Contest
Sponsor: Kai Michael Neumann
Machine guns tattoo the air with fire;
reports ululate
down the runway
too late
for the people who cling to the plane —
the pavement stings;
Allah sings from the curls of Persia’s towers.
Kabul, Kabul, Kabul,
where the Taliban will rule,
where occidents left the lambs to wolves,
and Quran will be taught as cruel,
mercy burned like offal.
Women will hide in hijab,
a narrow escape into the niqab,
the Likeness of God veiled and macabre
for no one can see Her face except shadows, husbands, or shame.
Sept 5, 2021
Afghanistan poetry contest
Sponsor: the Kai Michael Nuemann
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