Ode To Those Who Wage War On Peace

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Thinking about events,
a lament forms in my heart
for the innocent ones
whose lives are cast into ruins
beneath boots of glory
that march to visionary
commands from leaders gone
mad with the ego’s song of
self-serving delusion.

Wondering what goes on
in the hidden depths beyond
surface shallows which flow
in public space, I try to
fathom the undertow
set in motion by ones with
power and ambition
so that I may try to chart
a course for my own heart.

Navigating becomes
nightmarish when contending
with the lies used to bend
lines that define life maps which
defy one’s moral compass
while edicts are pronounced
that threaten rendition or
charges of sedition
if one should disobey.

Wondering about those
human beings whose bodies
lay still beneath rubble
or freshly dug earth due to
wondrous technology
and whose mortal sin was to
breathe air in the wrong place,
I also wonder about
those who kill in such haste.

My soul fills with pain and
tears as images of once-
laughing children -- now wrapped
in shrouds of silent witness
to newly won freedom --
haunt my heart’s memory,
while it searches for some
defensible theory for
murderous rage … but fails.

Wondering why ‘leaders’
feel so free to abuse the
lives of others and
treat that which is sacred with
low purposes of greed,
oppression, and corruption,
I seek answers amidst
dark deeds of mis-adventure
and see evil’s presence.

Re-framing is a tool
used by the tacticians of
falsehood to paint pictures
of truth and beauty … hiding
order’s nuanced decay
which seeps into people’s day,
turning light into night,
until life becomes entombed
in someone’s agenda.

Wondering, wandering
about history which shows,
again and again what
reasoning knows to be truth
concerning the monsters
who ruthlessly play games
of fame exploiting mere
human beings as life-like
toys for competing whims.

Anguished cries of the weak,
the disenfranchised, the poor
and hungry are heard by
models of civility
who claim they understand
this plight, but duty demands
that the rich get richer
while the rest are shown the door
to noble sacrifice.

I wonder about those
who label all terror but
their own as ignoble
while devising strategies
to inspire needless
fear to better control the
cattle who are to be
slaughtered on the altar of
service to endless lust.

Battles were lost as trust
died with the first casualty
of war and innocence
disappeared in the mangled,
burnt bodies of those who
did not transgress against us
yet were deemed suitable
for torture, rape, and murder
by those with diseased souls.

Wondering what to do
When faced with such relentless
Narcissism, I pray
for true guidance that blesses
me with understanding,
strength, courage and character
so that I might resist,
in moral ways, the darkness
which wages war on peace.