IMAGINARY ENEMIES: award winner

IMAGINARY ENEMIES: award winner



The US imagines that
Others are enemies,
If they refuse to follow
The US policies.

Way back it was Vietnam,
And then, Afghanistan.
Then Iraq was the victim
Of this vile US plan.

The US policy has
Been stated clearly:
Those who are not on our side,
They must pay dearly.

The US first imagined
Vietnam, so distant,
Was its enemy and there
Its marines it then sent.

The US dropped bombs on huts
To give a sound defeat
To communists but, in shame,
It had to just retreat.

Then Afghanistan it did
As enemy profess
Since Osama was there, though,
He’d lived in the US!

It then bombed Afghanistan
After Nine Eleven,
Though Saudi Arab was
The hijacker’s heaven.

Saudis were fourteen of
The nineteen hijackers
Of the Nine- Eleven fame,
The root of all matters.

Yet Saudi Arab is
The best friend of US,
Since it barters cheap oil, though,
Freedom does it suppress.

The US then thought Iraq
Was the next enemy.
And to convince himself, Bush
Dreamed up WMD.

I do not know of any
Iraqi incident,
That’s inimical against
The US president.

Kudos to US, it can
Conjure up enemies.
How I wish the US could
Amend its policies!



* Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format.

* Awarded second prize in item (now deleted)1187593, "News Desk: Contest", First round. This contest required that the poem be built upon a news item in a newspaper. The above poem was inspired by the news item in Times of India, dated 15 December 2006, which reads:

"IRAQ ENEMY IS FAR FROM BEING DEFEATED:BUSH-US president George Bush on Wednesday said the enemy in Iraq is "far from being defeated," but he vowed not to be rushed into adjusting his strategy and gave little indication that he intends to veer sharply from the direction his war policies have taken".

* It was earlier posted as entry 475387 in the book "WAR POETRY--award winner" . Posted as independent item on 10 April 2007


M C Gupta
15 December 2006