The Silence After Hope

By Preksha Kaliraman

Trying to weave emotions through the thread of words,

With each passing second a greater pain every heart suffers.

Are people in this world really alive,

Or merely continue walking because they still have a breath of life.

Humanity is lost in the swirl of hatred like the leaves in the autumn wind, 

Despair and agony have made the glim of hope dim.

The hue of selfishness has made humans blind,

We have abandoned our morals, leaving our virtues to rot behind.

Meaningless wars have captured every nook and corner of the earth, 

Resulting in bloodshed all for the sake of a politician's mirth.

All we gain is parent's weeping seeing the lifeless bodies of their children,

 The fog of grief and agony that with time only seems to thicken.

We are all made to believe that war is glorious,

But is any of the two rivalling sides truly victorious?

The soldiers fight for nations that are mere imaginary lines running across the globe,

But with every heart that ceases to beat around them, they lose the last flickers of hope.

Soldiers spend hours living, crying and fighting together in the most heartbreaking times,

Not knowing what their fate has in store for them, whether it’s living or dying.

Seeing their friends’ bodies fall lifeless beside them must have broken their hearts,

Because even if they’re soldiers with bravery flowing through their veins, they’re after all also humans with a heart.

They might feel that it would have been better if they had died,

Because after seeing the worst side of this world, there’s not much meaning left in life.

They return back to the civil world but that isn’t the one for them anymore,

Because though the body has returned, the joyful young soul has martyred in the war.

Their minds keep oscillating back to the hopelessness of the world of war,

Sadness embeds itself in their heart’s deepest core.

They’re able to see beyond the false façade of those in power,

They have lost faith in the world and look for hope in the stars.

The wives have lost the cheerful young men they fell in love with,

The sisters have lost their brothers they cherished their whole childhoods with.

The parents have lost their little boy and now question their fate asking “why”,

The young man has lost all hope along with the bright twinkle of his eyes.

Though we are human beings but fail in being human,

Fallen structures can be built again but not the grief stricken hearts that have been broken.

We all run a mad race to reach no where,

Because as said by Shakespeare all world's a stage and the men merely players.

By Preksha Kaliraman