Afghans

Afghans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With eyes of black obsidian

And eagle's beak of nose

Black turban of the Taliban

Worn everywhere he goes,

Warrior of God's mountainside

Mujaheddin, known by name,

Pashto is his verbal tongue

And Allah's quest, his fame.

 

Razored knife in braided belt

Long"Jezail"musket points to sky,

A gimlet glint to garnet gaze

One thoughtless move , you die.

Gliding fast from rock to rock

Gazelle like in his easy grace,

Silent as an adder's strike

Assassin black with turbaned face.

 

For centuries invaders came

To vanquish this stark land,

Persians,Romans, Russians

And British redcoats tried their hand.

And recently the Yankees

Came with automated war,

To find themselves engulfed

And fleeing for the exit door.

 

Inexorable Afghanistan

Has bleached their bones as one

Vendetta for the insult

While there's air to breath and gun.

Like Shah Massoud, the warlords

Descend from mountain cave

To slaughter all who venture

Be they terrified or brave.

 

Tribally disconnected

From Islamabad to Kabul,

Tajik versus Pashtun

Versus Koranic Islam's rule.

No prisoners are taken,

The women always use their knives

And ravines echo shockingly

As tortured slowly lose their lives.

 

But the sunsets are glorious

Valley mists by morning rise

And row by row of fractured peaks

Rise in grandeur to blue skies.

And the children croon to goat herds

As they graze high meadow's green

And above the taloned goshawk glides

Ever watchful and unseen.

 

Hulks of Russian gun ships

Litter valleys and the plain

And the ghosts of many nations

Walk these dusty roads of shame.

For the legacy of the Afghans

Is a bloody litany of war

And the road to their tomorrow

Is paved with promises of more.

 

Marshalg

Wanganui

30 December 2009.