Sunday, August 14, 2022

Afghanistan: A Steady Diet of Invaders - poem

 

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com 

https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/

poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

 

A Steady Diet of Invaders

 

“And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased,
 And the epitaph drear:  "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East”

 

-Kipling, “The Decline of the West”

 

This is the day, they say, that Kabul fell

A year ago - but Kabul did not fall

It’s still there: invaders come, invaders die

Pale British, Russians, and Americans

 

Afghanistan has eaten all of them

It even devours its own, and gnaws the bones

And all are dust along the Hindu Kush

Where lizards scuttle among imperial dreams

 

That land where caravans and mystics roam –

 

Let’s mind our own business and stay at home

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