Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.

Ajmer  Rode

Indo-Canadian writer Ajmer Rode has published books of poetry, prose and plays in Punjabi and English. Punjab Languages Department of India gave him the Best Overseas Punjabi Writer award in 1994. His 1000-page poetry book Leela, co-authored with N. Bharati, is counted in the most important Punjabi works published in the twentieth century.

Red Soup in My Bowl

I know I am going to be in this war
for sure.
Not that I am the one who plays
military games or flies loaded planes
or lives on the land under their
thunder, echoes wailing behind them.
I live on the other side of the globe
but know, if started, the war will
draw me in like the last time when

yellow moghulai soup in my bowl
had ominously turned red with a
reflection off the screen.
I saw blood. Saw half-dead bodies
escaping the tv into my
family room.
I shut the tv and dropped on sofa,
wondering if my tv had conspired
with the weapons of war.
I died a bit with every wretched
dying behind the black screen.
The screams I had shut out
came to weep in my soul and stayed.

If war is the only option
I am left with enlist me enlist me
enlist me in the war against war.

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