The First Victim of War

Posted on by Opher

War poetry

The First Victim of War

We’re listening to the news

To find what we have in store.

Just a sanitised version –

Truth is always the first victim of war.

We’re told casualty numbers

So that we can keep the score.

We don’t know if we can trust them.

Truth is always the first victim of war.

The rich are still making money

As sanctions hit the poor.

All carefully hidden up;

Truth is always the first victim of war.

The sight of the broken victims

Touch us to the core,

But how much is propaganda?

Truth is always the first victim of war.

The horror of the war crimes

All civilised people deplore.

Are paraded before us

Truth is always the first victim of war.

It crystallises clearly

What it is that we stand for.

The truth we hold before us:

Truth is always the first victim of war.

Opher – 1.3.2022

I’m watching all the news with a critical eye. I am aware of the propaganda being poured forth on both sides.

The Russians are putting forward a view that their glorious soldiers are liberating enslaved Ukrainians who are living under a neo-Nazi regime.

We are seeing reports of Russian soldiers surrendering, refusing to fight and abandoning equipment.

We see the gallant citizens making Molotov cocktails and people flooding back into the country to fight the invader.

Russia tightens its grip and pounds civilian areas with cluster bombs and missiles.

War is nothing more than organised murder.

The truth??  Hard to see clearly in the fog of war.

Zaporzhzhia – Let’s Dice With Nuclear Death

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Let’s dice with nuclear death.

Winning is more important than life.

Who cares about the future

When war’s stupid madness is rife?

For Putin is using blackmail;

Handing out his nuclear threats.

Insanely heading for meltdown.

Telling us Russia would have no regrets.

Zaporzhzhia could be the name we’ll remember

If Putin lets it blow.

He’s using it as a gambling chip,

Unleashing terror just so we’ll know.

He’s offering us a nuclear cloud

Designed to fill us with fear.

Another horrendous Chernobyl

Whose cost would be exceedingly dear.

There is no end to madness

When the powerful lock their horns.

The world becomes a huge chess set

And we’re the expendable pawns.

Opher – 20.8.2022

It is quite apparent that human beings are just exceeding stupid apes. Instead of using our intelligence and resources to build a better world we seem intent on destroying what we have.

The war in Ukraine is a litany of destruction, lives and incredible costs. In the midst of an existential climate crisis we are burning huge amounts of fuel, blowing up everything in sight and even threatening a nuclear holocaust. Is there a shred of intelligence to be found?

Pink Floyd for Ukraine – Hey Hey Rise up!

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Putin’s shame!! Russia’s shame!

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?&q=youtube+Hey+Hey+Rise+up&view=detail&mid=39ABAB795F7DD4DD90BB39ABAB795F7DD4DD90BB&FORM=VIRE&rvsmid=A0B0180BC5473E96F195A0B0180BC5473E96F195&form=VDQVAP&ajaxhist=0

Support Ukraine. Buy it!

I Make War!!

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I Make War!!

I fire bullets.

                I fire rockets.

                                I drop bombs.

                                                Lives in my pockets.

I plan wars.

                I give orders.

                                I send troops

                                                Across borders.

I kill children.

                I rape girls.

                                I destroy.

                                                The game unfurls.

I’m the leader,

                I make rules,

                                Setting targets

                                                For the fools.

I make love.

                I make law.

                                Power and greed.

                                                I make war!

Opher – 31.3.2022

Without the goons there would be no war. The tyrants make the rules and direct the troops. The mindless zombies carry out the wishes. They shoot, they rape and kill. The despots treat us like fools.

Given Time

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Given Time

We’ll all be friends again

                                                Given time!

Though cities flattened

                                                In unprecedented crime.

Things will change

                                                Without sense or rhyme.

Cities restored

                                                In softer clime.

Once again

                                                All things will chime.

It will have all been for nothing!

                                                Given time!!

Opher – 28.3.2022

While the politicians play their games of power using people as pawns. It’s a game where lives are just statistics. Trillions of dollars are spent killing and destroying.

For spurious reasons the politicians ruin lives.

The people are caught in the middle, manipulated, exploited and lied to.

It’s all about power and wealth though they try to convince you that it’s really about safety.

So Putin kills to liberate in an Orwellian doublethink. He’d have the Russian population believe that it is necessary as there is an existential threat.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had one world without the stink of war and all that money could be spent on education, solving poverty, art and recreation.

I went to visit Vietnam and Cambodia recently. It clearly demonstrated to me the sheer stupidity of war – a devourer of huge resources and creator of trauma.

It’s time for the UN to step in and arrest all the leaders who resort to such barbaric evil practices.

Bodies in the street

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Bodies in the street

The last touch

                Before they left the universe;

The last touch

                Before they are gone forever,

Was the frozen hard ground.

Bodies abandoned

                In the street

                                With no-one to care,

No-one to provide that final embrace.

Left to freeze

                In the icy street

                                With no warmth

In those last seconds;

                No human touch

                                No final goodbye.

Opher – 13.3.2022

I wrote this in response to the scenes of Russian soldiers left strewn across a city street, abandoned and uncared for.

Their body heat seeps into the ground until they become frozen lifeless lumps of meat.

They, and the thousands of Ukrainian citizens and soldiers killed by the Russians, were disposed of in mass graves dug by machines.

Death has lost all humanity.

No War!! No War!!

Posted on by Opher

No War!! No War!!

No War!!  No War!!

There is no war!

                That’s fake news!

To say there is

                Is worth fifteen years!

No War!!  No War!!

Controlling the narrative,

                Suppressing dialogue,

This is the truth!

                Shout the puppeteers!

No War!!  No War!!

Putin’s in control.

                Tanks and troops

Are peace keepers.

                Have no fears.

No War!!  No War!!

Destruction is from

                Ukranian insurgents.

Russians bring chocolate and hope

                (death and tears)!!

No War!!  No War!!

Opher – 5.3.2022

He who controls the narrative controls the people. The news is being suppressed, the people oppressed.

Putin and his oligarchs walk off with the cash while the people live in tiny apartments and eat boiled cabbage.

Communism was meant to be about equality! About the people being in charge.

This form of totalitarianism coupled with extreme inequality and a ridiculously wealthy elite is about as far away from communism as you can get. This is repressive totalitarian control.

The people are on the street. The hierarchy is crumbling fast.

The rat is trapped – a victim of his own greed and paranoia.

Mariupol – A symbol of what is WRONG!!

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Instead of trying to build a better world and solve the massive problems facing us (climate change, biodiversity, mass migration, poverty, inequality, overpopulation ………..) we have madmen spending trillions destroying cities and slaughtering innocent people!!

As a species we are utterly insane!! We put these psychotic fools in charge of us!!

We won’t forget!! This is the 21st Century!! They are behaving like crazed barbarians!!

Poetry – National Interests

Posted on by Opher

National Interests

National interests always come first –

Territory, oil or eliminating threat.

Enemies require neutralising.

We have to address the national debt.

Behind our leaders are financiers

Whose business interests run the game.

They pull the strings, rig elections

Use the media to point the blame.

They like wars; wars make them rich –

All that matters is power

Soldiers are expendable,

Cities lie in ruins,

As they turn the future sour.

Opher – 3.5.2022

It’s not national interests at all, is it? It’s the interests of a small elite.

War is a big money-maker.

They sell the arms. They sell the products to rebuild.

They knock it down and build it up. Win Win.

Their shares go mad. Their wealth increases.

Who cares about the people when there’s money to be made? Who cares about the death, destruction and maimed. Pawns in the game.

The stock market runs the show. Profit is the motive.

They are dicing with death.