The Soldier

For I am Death, the Destroyer

Of your world, the cremator

Of your happiness

Descending from above

In a chariot of iron and fire.

Tremble before me,

For your fate depends on me –

My whim,

In the casual pressure of a trigger pull,

I can turn your world upside down.

Speak I but a word

And your life will be ashes

Or I can spare you today and move on by.

And there is nothing you can do or say

To change what I decide

Of who is to live today and who is to die.

In my Kevlar helmet, my plates of armour

I am the Knight of God,

I am the righteous wrath of Vengeance,

Tremble before me.

But underneath that armour, inside this uniform

There’s someone else – a boy crying

To be home with his parents,

To walk in the rain hand in hand

With his girl. A boy

Who only has the memory.

Underneath the armour is a boy who does not want to be here

A boy who is crying to be free

A boy sunk in terror and misery.

And he will not let me be.

I will drown that boy in your blood

In your people’s blood.

Fear me.

"Liberation", watercolour on paper, copyright B Purkayastha, 2007

Copyright B Purkayastha 2012