War at Midnight, a poem by AK Traveler at Spillwords.com

War at Midnight

written by: AK Traveler

Moon’s up, stars light.
The world is in pause of sleep,
But somewhere deep
Inside the chest of the traveler’s
A royal court is about to be summoned.

“All rise!!”

The eternal witness.
The holder of all.
His Eminency
King Soul, with his Prime Minister, Brain,
Arrives.

Brain (bowing toward the throne):
I thank every organ of the council for being present.
His Excellency
Is in consultation
About an unfriendly debt
Between two of us.

So, I’d like to invite both of them
To place their words
In front of His Excellency.
The Eye vs The Heart

Heart:
Oh my Lord,
my beats are all for You and by You.
Sir, I must say
I am the nearest to her.
I’m the one who holds her everything,
Even when the world sleeps.
You, Eye,
Can only see her when she’s there…
But I?
I see her every time, everywhere.

Eye (with a laugh):
Ha!
Your Excellency,
I was the first to spot her.
Everyone, please try to remember
The first day, we were all just doing our tasks…
But as soon as I saw her
Everyone forgot what they were meant to do.

Especially you, Heart.
You forgot your one and only job
To pump.
But you?
You stole everyone’s role
You smiled.
You breathed deeper.
You even stole my part,
To dream.

And still, Sir
We all know her only because of me.
What if I hadn’t seen her first that day?
Then none of us would’ve become a poet.

Heart:
So what if you saw her first?
If I hadn’t beaten faster that very moment
None of you could’ve held her magic.
Not even you, Eye.

Because facts are facts
You may have shown her first…
But I’m the one who fell for her first.

I’m the one who feels her,
In both presence and absence.
Holds her, and cries for her.
That’s not you.
That’s me.

Even when you search for her
It’s me who gives you hope.

And I know
You can’t understand what is meant by
“Be happily sad,”
Because being in that pain… is so joyful.

Let her give me pain
Even if it comes in dreams
I am enjoying that
even if it always remains a dream
Ever and always

Eye:
You know what?

Heart:
What!?

Eye:
It’s me who cries when you ache.
I… burst in her absence.
I sketch her everywhere.
And I am the only one
Who waits for her
For everything.
Every-time.
Who are you to judge that
What I can understand or not
If one glimpse of her could make me die,
I’d still die to see her once more.
Whether opened in reality,
Or closed in imagination
And I..i..

Heart:
Continue, I am here
All yours, fraud

Eye:
What do you mean by
fraud?!

Brain (interrupting with a strong and effective voice ):
I am sorry to stop you,
But you both Heart and Eye
Are confusing this sacred court.
Your feelings blur the facts.

So I ask
Do either of you have a witness?
A clear one?
One who was present…
When it all began?

Present it now,
In front of His Majesty.

(A moment passes. Then Heart steps forward.)

Heart:
Your Majesty…
I would like to invite Memory,
The one who saw it all.
Who remembers
The very first beat,
The first look,
The first silence…
That screamed everything.
May I?

Brain:
You may.

(Soft wind blew
All through the court.
Memory
Steps into the witness box.)

Brain:
Memory,
Please take your oath.
After me
I-

Memory:
I, Memory,
Swear by the name
Of Almighty God
That the evidence I shall give
Shall be the truth,
The whole truth,
And nothing but the truth.

Brain:
Now you may proceed.

Heart:
Memory,
Please tell everyone
About the moment
The first time one.

Memory:
Okay…
That,
My favorite memories.
That eleventh of April
Like a common day.
But suddenly,
Around 7 a.m.,
A storm arrived
Which changed everything in every one of us.
It changed Heart
The way it beats.
It changed Eye
The way it sees.
So even it changed
The Honorable Brain
The way it feels.

That day
And today is the day…
Nothing changed.

Heart:
Please tell the court
who was
most affected
by that storm
you’re talking about?

Memory:
You.
it was you, my heart.
While I keep records,
you kept the feeling.
While I just replayed,
you relived.

I store
But you suffer.

I remember the rain,
but you felt every drop.
I recall her voice,
but you trembled with each word.

You were the one
who danced in dreams
but cried in silence.

That storm
it didn’t pass over you…
It passed through you.

And though I carry echoes,
you carry wounds
still open,
still waiting
for a name
to whisper them closed.

Yes
you, dear heart,
were the one
who broke
yet chose to beat.

Heart:
That’s it, sir
I gave my remembrance to all of you

Brain:
Now it’s your turn, eye.

Eye:
Sir, I like to call
my most closest one,
my healer of tough time—
“tear.”

A sudden sadness spreads over the room.

Tear
Step into the box.

Brain:
Take your oath tear
Carry it as I pronounce
I

Tear:
I, Tear, swear by the name of Almighty God
that the evidence which I shall give
shall be the truth,
the whole truth,
& nothing but the truth.

Brain:
You may proceed.

Eye:
Oh my friend,
tell everyone
from where you come,
why you come,
and the reason behind you

Tear:
Thank you, my eye…
You never spoke,
but always saw.
You held back oceans
when the world thought
he was smiling.

I come from you
not as weakness,
but as strength
you chose not to show.

You saw what no one else did.
You watched the breaking,
the leaving,
the waiting,
the staying…

when no word could help,
you still looked at her—
and that was enough
for pain to rise.

I was your voice,
your scream in silence.
I am not a shame
I am proof…
that you feel
when others just blink and move on.

They say eyes deceive
but mine never did.
They say tears lie
but I stand here,
truth in salt.

So if you ask
why I come?

I come
when the eye sees love…
and loses it,
but never forgets it.

Brain:
That’s it
It’s all the game of feels, and I am not used to this game
Finally
the time for final decision
So his excellency, the king of all, the holder of all
The king Soul

SOUL:
Love
not something we find,
but something
that finds us
when we’re lost enough
to be real.

It’s not two hearts joining—
but one soul breaking itself
just to keep
another whole.

It’s not spoken,
yet it speaks.
It’s not touched,
yet it heals.

It’s the sweetest ache—
a wound we never
want to close.
A goodbye
we keep living.

Love is memory’s favourite poem,
and pain’s softest friend.
It’s the only truth
even a lie can’t kill.
It’s the reason
a Heart keeps beating in pain,
an Eye keeps crying in silence,
and a Soul stays awake
long after the body sleeps.

But since I have to make a decision
So
After hearing both of you
Heart and Eye
Court came to the conclusion that…..

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AK Traveler

AK Traveler is a young Indian poet known for his emotionally driven, raw, and unfiltered style. His poetry flows like thoughts mid-heartbeat—often breaking grammar rules to preserve feeling. He blends metaphor with reality, memory with imagination, and frequently leaves poems deliberately unfinished to mirror real life. Writing under names like AK Traveler (pen name) his work is deeply personal yet widely relatable. In his four-part “Oh Life” series, he explores love, loss, memory, and the longing for what could’ve been—through a voice that sounds more like a whisper than a declaration.