A whistle blows- a missile takes flight,

Blows the dome- the mythical iron dome- 

It pretended to be so polite!

Earlier- 

Targets marked- people died, 

Cost- unknown, 

Lives destroyed- dead bodies crumbled under the rubble so benign! 

Yet, the night is young-

Madmen drinking and applauding the dead,

Mocking them- in the digital delight!

A child hung in arrow- too young to flee,

A woman shot- too heavy to be free,

A man stabbed-too passionate to die,

Martyred in the name of religion and regionality!

Oh, the rogue ‘ethno-supremacy’!!

Collateral damage everywhere-

In the brain, 

In the vein,

In the bloodstream, 

In the ocean,

In the voice filled with vice,

A cat race played by the mice, 

Killing people like lice,

And, chewing and licking fingers- as if their mouths are filled with filthy rice,

You kill thrice-

In the meanwhile the revolutionaries shot you-twice!

Tweaking ice! 

Piercing eyes! 

Garnered and revered and feared and reared and geared and seared and smeared and severed and steered –

Through the spike! 

Collateral damage -that’s the price people pay for a slice-

Horns and horns everywhere-

Horns of Gebon and Horns of Suez,

Hormuz to Atlantica, 

Dead sea to panama-

How many dead to be offered for?!

Offered for- mercy rain!?

Oh, the drain is filled with young rage and blood spilled red- 

Red- Red-Red- collateral damage everywhere! 

Dreams shattered-

Joys flattened –

In the blurry flame-

In the vague infected blame-

But, the aspiring civilizations will speak the name,

In the steel and clean plate-

We will remember the collateral damage,

Murmuring in the rubble- A civilization will develop from the ashes and oh, yes, it will definitely ace!

©® Farheen Bhuiyan Nancy 

Time Frame: 9.48 pm, MIST, Mirpur Cantonment, Dhaka-1216.