“Nabiha Iqbal- “If I Survive” “

“Nabiha Iqbal- “If I Survive” “

A poem from the words of forgotten soldiers 

Who fought and died for a war not theirs. 

Conscripted into the ranks of gun fodder 

Limbless they saw all the horrors

And none of the benefits 

For this was not a war for democracy, nor freedom 

But continued misery, under their colonial masters 

Not a war to protect, but a war over Africa’s fertile soil. 

Whilst this has gone and done 

We still live in that past 

For Africa still scrambles out of that pitiless pit  

And the World still reels from our colonial past

The present and the future 

Of neo-colonial arms 

In Palestine, Syria and the Yemen 

They yet live from palm to palm

Suffering the injustice of seeing their futures denied 

Their children killed, yet more cannon fodder for our guns. 

(C) Shafeesthoughts 

9th November 2018