The Unseen Battlefield

Beyond the trenches, past the lines,
Where bullets fly and danger twines,
There lies a field we seldom see,
Where war wreaks silent misery.

In quiet homes, with curtains drawn,
A mother weeps from dusk to dawn,
Her child’s room, now still and bare,
An unseen battle rages there.

A wife stares at an empty chair,
Her husband’s laughter lingers there,
Each meal for one, a lonely fight,
On this unseen field, day and night.

In playgrounds empty, swings hang still,
No children’s voices on the hill,
For war has stolen youth away,
An unseen battle every day.

In hospitals, the wounded lie,
Their battles fought in screams and sighs,
Not just in body, but in mind,
The unseen scars that war leaves behind.

A farmer views his fallow field,
Where tanks, not tractors, made their yield,
His harvest lost, his future too,
An unseen battle, tried and true.

In classrooms where young minds should grow,
Now rubble lies in silent row,
Dreams and hopes lie crushed and still,
On learning’s unseen battlefield.

The veteran, home but never free,
Fights phantoms that we cannot see,
His war goes on in sleepless nights,
An unseen battle, out of sight.

In hearts once open, now turned cold,
Where hatred’s seeds take bitter hold,
The unseen battle rages on,
Long after treaties have been drawn.

For every bomb that shakes the ground,
A thousand quiet tears are found,
For every soldier in the fray,
A family kneels at home to pray.

This unseen field stretches wide,
Across the world, on every side,
Where war’s true cost is truly paid,
In lives disrupted, dreams delayed.

So when we speak of war’s great toll,
Remember not just those who fall,
But all who fight on unseen ground,
Where war’s true battles can be found.

For peace to truly have a chance,
We must see past the gun and lance,
To heal the wounds we cannot see,
On the unseen battlefield of humanity.