A GURKHA MOTHER (Satis Shroff) <br /> <br />The gurkha with a khukri <br />But no enemy <br />Works for the United Nations <br />And yet gets shot at <br />In missions he doesn't comprehend. <br />Order is hukum, hukum is life <br />Johnny Gurkha still dies under foreign skies. <br /> <br />He never asks why <br />Politics isn't his style <br />He's fought against all and sundry: <br />Turks, Tibetans, Italians and Indians <br />Germans, Japanese, Chinese <br />Argentenians and Vietnamese. <br />Indonesians and Iraqis. <br />Loyalty to the utmost <br />Never fearing a loss. <br /> <br />The loss of a mother's son <br />From the mountains of Nepal. <br /> <br />Her grandpa died in Burma <br />For the glory of the British. <br />Her husband in Mesopotemia <br />She knows not against whom <br />No one did tell her. <br />Her brother fell in France, <br />Against the Teutonic hordes. <br />She prays to Shiva of the Snows for peace <br />And her son's safety. <br />Her joy and her hope <br />Farming on a terraced slope. <br /> <br />A son who helped wipe her tears <br />And ease the pain in her mother's heart. <br />A frugal mother who lives by the seasons <br />And peers down to the valleys <br />Year in and year out <br />In expectation of her soldier son. <br /> <br />A smart Gurkha is underway <br />Heard from across the hill with a shout <br />'It’s an officer from his battalion. <br />A letter with a seal and a poker-face <br />'Your son died on duty', he says, <br />'Keeping peace for the country <br />And the United Nations'. <br /> <br />A world crumbles down <br />The Nepalese mother cannot utter a word <br />Gone is her son, <br />Her precious jewel. <br />Her only insurance and sunshine <br />In the craggy hills of Nepal. <br />And with him her dreams <br />A spartan life that kills.<br /><br />Satis Shroff<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-of-a-precious-jewel-satis-shroff-freiburg/
