Be Still

Be Still

“Tunde tell God about your problem and listen to His still small voice. He will guide u aright.” so the SMS says.

I know you pray but will it pay?
I have strained hard.
But I haven’t heard.
Did I ever?
Or was I just clever?
Commune with thine heart upon thy bed

Yesterday I was lost in a dark place
A journey with no aim found me at the cantonment
“Halt!” said the soldier at the gates
I had trespassed. And I was ready for my recompense.

“Stay. Talk with us.
To war tomorrow we go.
Who knows if we will be back or not.
Maybe yours will be the last friendly face we’ll see.
Tell us your name and we will tell you ours.
Per chance we meet again, then not as strangers but as friends.”

So I tarried with them
And took their minds of their troubles by telling them mine
“We will gladly trade places with you friend
But we are committed and we must go
Do not think less of us if we say fear is our bedmate
We will still do our duty to man and country

And so we were till the Sun came up
And the stars went to bed
I made my way wearily home
But home is not a structure planted in the ground made from bricks and mortar
But there I went all the same

And the years went by
And I grew in age and in girth
Life got better then worse then better

On a day as strange as today
I found myself once again where I should not be
“Halt!” said the soldier at the gates
I had trespassed. And I was not ready for my recompense.

With a torch in my face and the deep black at my back
I could not see past my nose
But I heard a familiar voice
And a name sprang to mind
I whispered it lest I was wrong
But it carried all the same on that still night air

“Speak up man. Was it a name that escaped your lips?
Or would you rather lose your teeth.”
“I used to know a soldier. Perhaps it is you. A friend he was on the night he went to war.”
“It is I indeed friend. Many years have passed but nothing changes.”

I remember we met on a night just like this
Before we went to war
You look worse for wear
But who am I to talk?
Have I gained in rank or in wealth?
Or is it the gray that I hide under die or the fat that forms my second belt?
Yet I am here and many are not.
For of those you met that strange night only I remain.

I have not mourned for them.
Maybe I waited for you: for one who knew where we went and how we felt.
Will you tarry and listen to me?
I will tell you about fear and foes
About guns and ghouls
About death. Ye. Mostly about death.

So I tarried again in that place so strange.
And he told me how death came and starred in the faces of men
And took their breaths away
Some went in the rain that refused to stop
And some went in great pain
But to no one was it gain
And mourning those who were no longer with us
We passed the night with a thousand shades

And so we were till the Sun came up
And the stars went to bed
I made my way wearily home
But home is not a structure planted in the ground made from bricks and mortar
But there I went all the same

18-11-2012? (updated 6:35am 02/Mar/2013)