Emotional Wounds & Epiphany in Kabul (Satis Shroff)

AFGHAN BLUES: EMOTIONAL WOUNDS (Satis Shroff)

Taliban angst caused Afghans

To storm the airport in Kabul,

And climb up moving aircraft,

In vain attempts to escape

The impending danger.

Talibans, known for their brutality,

Towards those who didn’t obey

The dictates of the Sharia,

Were coming closer and closer.

Every human reacts differently

To stress situations,

But the fear of the Talibans,

Hangs like the Sword of Damocles

In the minds of the Afghans,

Who made friends with the infidels,

In a twenty year old war.

The post-traumatic syndrome

Takes a long time to heal,

For the Talibans haunt you

In your dreams.

A psychic and physiological stress ensues,

And follows you long after.

Confined to the long-term memory,

Only to be triggered by incidents

That your memory recalls.

It becomes almost real

You can feel it,

Your body reacts like it then.

Your mind is flooded

With those ghastly memories.

You experience the trauma again.

The danger belongs to the past,

But you haven’t overcome it

In your mind.

* * *

EPIPHANY IN KABUL (Satis Shroff)

No more gunfire in the deep night

Tears of joy roll down the cheeks

Of women and children,

Of bearded fathers safe at last,

In the belly of a foreign aircraft.

The longing for sleep and freedom

In a country far away from the Hindukush.

Ashraf Ghani left Kabul,

His pockets and bags full of dollars,

In a chopper bound for Usbekistan.

Epiphany in Kabul:

The rich leave the country,

The poor have to remain,

Like when the Soviets departed.

What remains is a proclaimed Islamic Emirate,

That was once the Land of the Afghans.

Not a single Afghan soldier

Fired a shot.

It was a hurried surrender.

Taliban warriors grabbed with glee

The sophisticated weapons of the Army.

3,600 coalition soldiers

Lost their lives in Afghanistan.

2,26 billion dollars blown up

In twenty years in the Hindukush.

A geostrategic fallout

Caused by the speedy return of the Talibans.

President Biden said: ‘Afghanistan is a failed state,

Bedevilled by warlords and corruption.’

The pragmatic Talibans chanted their new mantra to pacify the west:

‘Women will be respected.

They should not be terrified.

There is no danger to life, property and honour.

Tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

The media will be free.

The assassinations by the Talibans are fake news.’

It’s like Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

* * *