What Is War? Poem by Shehu Abubakar Niasse

What is war?
War is that bloody bastard lying awake on the rusty lips of an armament. Gun.
Pointed at the temples of a different clan.
War is that cruel thing sitting on the point of a siletto,
Set to stab souls out of lives.
War is a generous king:
It costs you an arm to invite but all limbs and trunk to bid farewell;
It takes a nanosecond to arrive and about a lifetime to set its train on its rail.
War! War!
Who dares toll on you
And regale you with hearts torn by the gone bullets of a gun?
None does dare but he who has got springs in his soles
And whose family have emplaned.
Don't call on war!
Don't!
Don't turn homes of peace into homes of naked, wandering souls bereft of wears!