War is Over
A poem
A chime that marked the end,
its silence trembled
through the alleys and streets,
rippling through the cities,
becoming barricades for those who lived in them.
The silence,
it engulfed them.
Made them weak,
made them coward,
made them kneel.
Their mighty has fallen,
their obedience is now required.
In just hints of seconds,
the message that bore no warning
made their city cry red.
Writer’s Note:
This poem was originally written for Hong Kong, and the fight for freedom that ultimately was lost. Today, it’s the echoing poem for Afghanistan — a war that today we leave even more broken than we started.
History has often been told through the lenses of the winners, but as this war closes, there is no victory to celebrate. There’s a deafening silence of a society that is now lost, and a contagious fear of the new rule.
Afghanistan, my heart is with you.
