End of War (revisited)

A poetic meditation on the “end” – that is, the inexorable result of that historical and ongoing human insanity – of war

Note: First posted on January 3, 2020 and, here, revised.

Humans who wage war,

the perpetrators and their conspirators,

begin

with reasoned(?), impassioned justifications to sanction

the killing of the enemy (the dehumanized, demonized “other”),

who (despite proclamations of lessening “collateral damage”)

include the innocent: all without means to dodge

falling bombs

and shattered histories

and dismembered families

and lost legacies of children who will not grow old.

Yet before the beginning,

before the first shot or casualty,

war-waging humans

already have surrendered tenuous hold,

foremost,

of the truth of the commonality of humanity

dwelling under the same sky of a shared Earth

and

of the wisdom that longs to know the way to live in love.

© 2022 PRA

#thewayofwar #thewayoflove