Is Paris Burning?

smouldering rubble every inch of the battleground,
shell shot, air lit, devastated, damage profound!

conquering armies from the enemy retrieve,
scarred land but pray fervently for the sacred, a reprieve.

with prayer and hope it is contrary, answer is sought,
from troops rumbling back after they have fought.

the eternal city once, alexandria, carthage,
eons of cultural refinement, consigned to fire and carnage.

bullet sparing, blood be spattered, the war pawn,
has sensibility, not the strategist who initially war did spawn.

bridges on the seine, louvres, notre dame,
banks of the tigris, baghdad, hold equal claim to fame,
warring down mosul to basra, alexander returned in different frame.

nuts said the general, generally nutty the war theme,
war on hunger, poverty and disease, a theme more supreme,
war on usurper pollution, becomes american dream, humanity to redeem.

by- J.V. Ramana Rao
Hyderabad, India
Osmania University.