War

by Genny Lim

War is madness
You ask yourself
What lies beyond the power of a bomb?
Beyond the artillery of words?
Beyond the firing squad of the “Liberator?”
Who hands you a map in exchange for your land?
What is Empire but the slaughterhouse of dreams?
A hungry ghost that feeds on itself?
The President yells, ‘Rise!’
Beating his chest in the display of chief gorilla
And everyone rises!
He raises the flag of victory over the wounded
And corpses of innocents, as if their blood were
The Biblical parting of the Red Sea
War doesn’t forgive, nor does it accept
The law of cause and effect
Above the conquest of nature
As if killing were godly
And fighting, the endgame for peace
War is death
It’s mangled limbs, smoldering roofs, iron walls
Turned to rubble and ash
It’s a black cloud of meaningless suffering
Under which both, victor and loser
Cling, as parasite to host
Consuming humanity