Kalashnikov Chronicles (poem)

Kalashnikov Chronicles
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"I have to do this
Because he also did this.
Or he may do this.
So I must do this.
No one can do this but me
I have to do what I have to do.
He did this, did he not?
Who are you to tell me what I ought?"

To think is bad, to feel is sad
To kill is okay? Or is it a fad?
Offence is best defence
There goes my tuppence
Not for reason but for rhyme
Who shall jail a tank for a war crime?

Memories of pride
Fears of an impending smallness
Can make reason fly
Vanity ensures  blindness
Friends will freeze
In gratitude and fear
Or sport the studied indifference
Of those in the clear.
Children will cry, mothers shall weep tears
We shall keep scores in centuries, decades and years
We shall redraw maps
In cartographic fantasies
Dance macabre
In bizarre ecstasies
A gun pointed, another sold
Will buy elegant silences. Behold!

Blue-tied men will count ineffectual votes
Fly business class, share anecdotes
The chatterati will spew fire and brimstone
In verbal battles of the latest smartphones
The war will leave scars for decades on end
Because an enemy was crafted from a former friend
  -- Madhavan Narayanan, 2022
#UkraineRussiaWar