Saturday, December 30, 2017

Collateral Damage ~ Saturday, 30 December 2017

Beyond the mundane world 
I seek world peace a joke 
to some who see whirled peas 

Under no condition 
do I choose to delude 
myself with the humor 

Demonstrated at hand 
with how impossible 
our task presents itself 

Deny yourself humor 
when you know how remote 
the day to come we seize 

Humor with a hard look 
to face sarcasm down 
as bad faith at the well 

A wish dreams of a world 
where hope ruffles no bird 
found on an oil slick beach 

--

Defense contracts ensure 
big business war profits 
collateral damage 

Humors no one in brass 
except the most jaded 
soldier on base rumor 

As heard off-base reveals 
this man sick in the brain 
with a tumor his health 

Rest assured does not make 
his schadenfreude less 
poignant when others lose 

Mothers fathers children 
to a wanton missile 
we shrug at the news tell 

Anyone who asks that God 
acts in mysterious 
ways a lesson we teach 

--

Soldiers themselves to say 
in order to lessen 
the truth behind ravaged 

Artillery-shelled homes
where civilians survive
as maimed shells flesh and bone

No one here will listen
to another story
the other side must tell 

Guess who suffers their loss 
blind to our own conscience 
within our guts we choose 

However bad the news 
to look away and shrug 
or else we turn to stone 

Ask Medusa to stare 
into the mirror held 
by Perseus hard sell

--

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