(For the soldiers who lost their lives while fighting for their country, Nigeria)

It was not shock. It was first disbelief and then doubt, the warring emotions on her face when she heard the news.
How can the voice she heard at dusk be dead at dawn? Impossible! Or is it possible?

Ma’am, we are really really sorry,
But can you come and carry your son’s body? He fell … he fell into his death while fighting.
All she could think of was how the voice she heard at dusk was dead at dawn, and the unripe dreams of her 30-year-old son.

He left home whole, donned in his camo, wearing a brave smile on his war-hardened face. Mother’s pride! A gallant fighter sold out to his nation’s defence.
He left home in a camo but returned in a body bag with a bullet hole in his shoulder.

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His other brothers-in-arm joined him in the land of the dead.
Did the owner of the bulleted forehead see death flash by before his oxygen tank was depleted?
Did the soldier who owned the blood-smeared parts feel death coursing through his veins as the end drew near?

I wonder what went through their minds when the foes pounced on them.
Slices of fear? Or bravery all through?
Regret? Or fulfilment?
What were their last words as they breathed their last, surrendering their souls on the battlefield?

Did the faces of their loved ones flicker through their minds for a second?
Did they see the void in the hollow eyes of their widowed wives, sonless parents and fatherless children at that moment?
Or were the filthy faces of the foes their last sight before death came for them?

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Will the nation they died for remember them as heroes?
Or will their gallantry soon be lost to the vestiges of the past like the past heroes?
Will the land that took their young blood weave stirring tales around their heroic deeds?
Or will they be replaced by other brothers-in-arm willing to give their souls to death?

Will their killers face the same grim fate if they are ever found,
Will justice come crashing down on their savage spirits,
Or will they be dubbed ‘repentant terrorists’ and their bestial acts forgiven?