The casualties are not only those who are dead. <br /> They are well out of it. <br /> The casualties are not only those who are dead. <br /> Though they await burial by installment. <br /> The casualties are not only those who are lost <br /> Persons or property, hard as it is <br /> To grope for a touch that some <br /> May not know is not there. <br /> The casualties are not only those led away by night. <br /> The cell is a cruel place, sometimes a haven. <br /> No where as absolute as the grave. <br /> The casualties are not only those who started <br /> A fire and now cannot put out. Thousands <br /> Are are burning that have no say in the matter. <br /> The casualties are not only those who are escaping. <br /> The shattered shall become prisoners in <br /> A fortress of falling walls <br /> <br /> The casualties are many, and a good member as well <br /> Outside the scenes of ravage and wreck; <br /> They are the emissaries of rift, <br /> So smug in smoke-rooms they haunt abroad, <br /> They do not see the funeral piles <br /> At home eating up the forests. <br /> They are wandering minstrels who, beating on <br /> The drums of the human heart, draw the world <br /> Into a dance with rites it does not know. <br /> <br />The drums overwhelm the guns… <br />Caught in the clash of counter claims and charges <br /> When not in the niche others left, <br /> We fall. <br /> All casualties of the war. <br /> Because we cannot hear each other speak. <br /> Because eyes have ceased the face from the crowd. <br /> Because whether we know or <br /> Do not the extent of wrongs on all sides, <br /> We are characters now other than before <br /> The war began, the stay-at-home unsettled <br /> <br /> By taxes and rumours, the looters for office <br /> And wares, fearful everyday the owners may return. <br /> We are all casualties, <br /> All sagging as are <br /> The cases celebrated for kwashiorkor. <br /> The unforseen camp-follower of not just our war. <br /> <br /><br />African Poems<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/john-pepper-clark-the-casualties/
