A soldier must be willing to empty their contents
To assume justice even in its absence
To follow without the guidance of heart.
The heart is too sensitive for violence,
Only the ego can conceive such cruelty.
–
There are only monsters,
Effigies of straw and bone.
There is survival and suspicion.
Hatred too is essential and if not
Hatred than at the very least indifference.
–
There are no children in war,
No women, no “people”,
There are only savages,
For who could kill
A man, woman or child
In cold blood if they were not
Shielded from their innocence?
–
There is no peace in war.
There is no peace in the heart
Of a man who takes arms
Against his neighbor.
There is no peace
Among the pocket liners
And grave fillers.
There is no peace
Among the widowed and childless.
–
There are still flowers
Blooming in the debris
Of what was once humanity.
There is still a sun and a moon
Cycling together in perfect harmony
Despite their differences.
Will we destroy them too?
*
This was inspired by a story in Planescape Torment.
There is a captain on a war ship. He has been ordered by his king to destroy an entire country. He is engaged in a merciless, basically one-sided war. His 2nd in command asks him what gives them the right to murder billions of people? The 2nd insists that the inhabitants can’t all be traitors that surely they are slaughtering innocents as well. The captain turns to his 2nd in command and says there are no innocents, that they must think only of their duty. There can be no mothers, no children, no “people”. If I were to think about what I have done, what I have truly done here I would go mad. So you see they are all traitors, all savages, and they deserve to be punished. To me this absolutely epitomizes war.
mindlovemisery 