Untitled - a poem by Somnath Mukherji

If you love your soldiers,

Don’t send them to war.

If you love your soldiers,

Work for peace & justice. There is more death in war than peace.

If you love your soldiers,

Understand structural violence. Death of the soldiers starts 

long before the battlefield.

If you love your soldiers,

Love them as human beings. Not their uniforms.

If you love your soldiers,

Know that they do not want to die. They love life like you.

If you love your soldiers,

Understand the agriculture policy & its effects.

If you love your soldiers,

Go to a drought-stricken village. A village plundered for coal,

That is where the fodder for your jingoism grows.

If you love your soldiers.

Read history. Have there been parallels? Striking!

If you love your soldiers

Take a breath before you bay for more blood,

Who will fight the war of revenge? Will you?

Can you love the farmer? The daily wager? The poor & the oppressed?

Then you have already loved the soldier, without the uniform.