Echoes of a Distant War

The field was red, the sky was dark,
A broken land, a hollow spark.
Amid the cries, the death, the pain,
A soldier stood, though hope was slain.

His heart, a drum that beat for peace,
Yet in his soul, the war would cease
Not for the cries of children’s dreams,
But for the terror that it seems.

He walked among the ghosts of men,
Who once had lived, but now, again,
Were shadows in the autumn breeze,
Their faces lost among the trees.

Each step he took on hallowed ground,
The echoes of the gunfire sound.
But still, within him burned a flame—
A flicker of a softer name.

A name that sang of distant shores,
Of winding roads and open doors,
Where laughter filled the air like song,
And time, unbroken, moved along.

He closed his eyes, and there it bloomed,
A home with flowers, sweet perfume.
The scent of earth, the kiss of rain,
A child’s voice calling out again.

“Come home,” it whispered in his ear,
A haunting plea, a love sincere.
Yet here he stood, amid the dust,
A soldier torn by war’s cruel thrust.

In every trench, in every fight,
The line between wrong and right,
Became a blur, a shaded scar,
Like distant stars that fade afar.

His comrades' faces, etched in time,
Now flickered in his weary mind.
He saw their eyes, their final breath,
A sacrifice, a taste of death.

And still, he longed for things unknown—
The peace of home, the love he’d grown.
The nights beneath a moonlit sky,
The simple joy of asking why.

"Why must this war continue still?
Why must the world be born of will,
When hearts of men could choose the way
To end the bloodshed, end the fray?"

But in the field, the answer's lost,
The price of life, the endless cost.
The soldier’s mind is full of pain,
Yet in his heart, a prayer remains.

"Bring me the peace that once was near,
Bring me the calm, bring me the cheer.
Let silence reign, and let it sing—
A song of love, a voice of spring."

And so, he walks with feet of lead,
A dream of home, a path ahead.
Though war may echo in his ear,
The call of peace is all he’ll hear.

For deep within the battlefield,
A soldier’s soul will never yield.
Though blood may stain the earth beneath,
His heart will long for home’s sweet peace.

- Khushi Kaul