Belligerence – a poem

Belligerence

 

Great city walls

Turrets and guardrooms,

Lances, bows

And cauldrons of molten lead;

Kingdoms come

And Kingdoms go;

Cities are built

And then destroyed;

Lands change hands –

Nothing is permanent.

 

Armies pour forth

To pillage and destroy.

Rape and death

Are dispensed

Without mercy.

It is the tale of history,

The tale of humanity

And I am left wondering why?

 

How life could be so much easier

For us all,

If not for the senseless

Brutality

Of human nature.

To rule, to take, to hurt,

To terrorise and always seek more.

 

What a great waste!

What a terrible history!

What a horrific species!

How much better we could have done!

 

Is there no hope?

 

Opher – 2.10.2019