The beating of drums, signals the start of war.
Rythymic chantings of heroes, fill the skies from afar.
History retold of past stories, in graphics for a movie.
War understood only through screen play.
Till war strikes home.
To be awaken to the screams of neighbors;
Dripping in cold sweat - the prelude to a nightmare.
Who? What? Rebels?
Night of mass exodus in waves of bundle laden people;
The common image of war.
In the dead of the night, sounds of scuffling;
Cries of children lost - calling out, "Mama!"
Their cries drowned by Pow - pow - pow;
Gunshots ricochet amidst the crowd.
Tonight we are not alone;
Rebels walk with us.
Guns concealed in carried mattresses.
Who is who?
In this senseless non understanding begining.
Then the stampede;
Scrambling for safety;
Abandoning vehicles;
Hiding in backyards;
The weak crushed amidst cries of fear; Shelters of basement and cellars - cramped.
A language of signs;
Mothers muffling the cries of their babies; Their hands clamped tightly over their mouths.
Cries of neighbors been slaughtered breaks the serenity of the night.
Pow - pow - pow.
Wailings then silence.
Dead - silence.
Religions joined in prayer for safety.
Hush! Hush !Listen.
Approaching footsteps as eyes glaze wide open; Not breathing.
"Who is here?"
"Open up!"
Pushing back as the door is pounded; With receding footsteps, families hurdle together.
What now? Will they set the house on fire?
Awaiting their fate, it is the beginning of their nightmare;
Nights bring nothing but a reborn of fear.
Bullets light up the sky; Red, blue, orange;
Whistling pass as bombs howl in a distance.
Choked in corridors, they crouch;
Crawling between rooms, they move;
Bath in cement dusts, they dwell, narrowly missed by bullets.
Daybreak opens the eye to bodies piled; Dogs feeding on carcasses;
The streets weeping with their blood;
Friends of yesterday gone in the dead of night;
An end to their generation as they lay for all to see.
The horrifying realisation of a senseless war.
If for money, power, or fame, no man is a friend of war.   
©Naomi Kamara (Pen of Fury)
© Naomi Kamara