A War Is Not Won

A war is not won
Not by the king, not by the general and not by the soldier
It is indeed lost by everyone
On the battlefield there are no tactics
The goal is mere survival
That’s all that is.

I have known it myself
that when the demon
lies in one’s self.
Every soldier of the heart is forever mourned,
for they can never see the new dawn.

Though the enemy is invisible,
we must fight it for our own sake.
If a person cannot fight his own demons,
then his life will be at stake,
who ever said life is a piece of cake?

Invincible are those who win the war
but truly they have lost more.
This victory is just a mirage.
They think they are in charge,
but indeed it is the war that has won,
a secret it keeps from us until it is gone.

~Pranav Joshi