THE LAMENTS OF A SOLDIER WIFE. (I was inspired by a lady who lost her husband in Kolofata.)
Excuse me, have you seen my husband? He is a soldier, strong and brave. He has fierce eyes and a bravery of six lions. I hear him calling but I can’t see him.
He told me he will be coming back, he said he will bring me a medal of glory but now I hear a different story. He told me I will hear from him often. But maybe he has forgotten.
He told me he will come for the baby shower, we’ve waited and now the soup is sour.
If this be a dream, wake me up, if this be a piece of theatre, let the act end.
Let the drums end, let the music seize, let this dance end. It’s sickening
The day you left with your comrades, you all were singing victory songs as you sat at the back of the military wagon.
Were you singing victory into your death?
You left me just like your comrades had left other women. Shame on you all.
What wrong did we do? Did we marry heroes or horrors?
Every day I hear the enemy visited and I will ask, what about mine.
God please give me a sign.
Today they told me you were coming home. I bathe the children and we waited. I wanted to hear the same victory songs you went with but instead I heard the siren of death. I saw your comrades all in tears, junior clinched to me in fear when he asked, mummy where is daddy? They showed us a box. What do I tell the children? “Daddy went to fight the dragon and the dragon ate him”.
I refuse to accept this, bring my husband back to me.
Where is my husband, where is my hero. Let him call my name.
Now you put all these medals on him, of what use are medals to a dead man?
Why did I marry a soldier, why did I marry a man who will choose death over me?
Now you’re gone protecting the country, who will protect me?
Shame on you husband of mine. Shame on you father of my children. What did I do wrong that you took me from my father’s house just to leave me alone? Shame on you soldier.
They say you are a hero, no you are a coward. Only a coward will leave his wife and kids to a world of uncertainty.
Wake up from there and tell me how to handle this calamity.
After all these gunshots and decoration, the people will go and I will start facing reality.
The people you went to defend will never pass by again
Why did I marry a soldier? # ify4u
(Ever since I wrote this, I have not been able to post it because every day I read it I cry. It’s okay if you cry too. I just want you to understand how a woman somewhere feels so that we can together support these women who lost their husbands at the war front.)