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| It is in human nature always to have war. Evolution is powered by vicious competition in nature. |
“Last night I had the strangest
Dream.”* Except that ending
War is not the strangest dream.
It is among the most common.
It is entertained most often not
At night but in the plain light
Of day, when the ravages of
War cannot be denied, the cries
Of the terrorized and wounded
Ring clearly on our newscasts,
Where we can mute the sounds
Or change the channel. War, up
Close and personal, cannot be
So easily extinguished. An arm,
Blown off a target by a Hellfire
Missile fired at the signal of a
Predator drone pilot seated in
A control room as far away as
Hancock Air Force Base near
Hancock Air Force Base near
Syracuse, New York, might
Come flying by your face, the
Bloody end striking your cheek
With a horrendous whack as it
Whirrs past, and you, standing,
Will have been blown back
By the force of the explosion,
Might find you have a horrible
Head injury both from the shock
Wave of the burst and from being
Knocked against a concrete wall
Behind you. If you die, if you are
Male of military age, you will
Be presumed a colleague of
The target, and your death will
Be reported as the death of a
Terrorist if and until someone
Proves you were only a farmer,
Non-political, coming to visit
A friend who had a striking
Resemblance to a known “bad
Guy” of the area. Your family
Will grieve deeply for your
Loss. Your wife will become
Another abandoned widow
Unable to support your orphans.
Their life, which already was
Desperately hard shall become
Even more difficult. And if they
Even bother to report your killing
So that fearful viewers might
Cheer at your demise, others
Might just as well return to the
Visual pablum of Jeopardy or
Big Bang Theory, mentioning
To themselves or to another, “I’ve
Had enough of this war—will
They never stop?” That is, if
They say anything at all.
c. J.S.Manista, 2016
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