If you want to wage a war,
Don’t resort to euphemisms,
Just call it by its name.
It’s not a skirmish or a conflict,
An unpleasantness or game.
If you want to support a war,
Then look it in the face.
Remember all the loss of life
Is part of your disgrace.
You can’t avoid the consequences.
You need to see them.
You need to look them in the eye.
Mutilated bodies with empty, glassy stare.
That’s how it looks when youth is forced to die.
There are sounds that you must hear,
The cries and screams of death.
The loudest sound is deafening silence
After their last breath.
To look at what you have destroyed
Requires courage and humility,
Decency, and respect.
And you must admit to your participation
And own up to its effect.
You can’t look away from atrocities,
Or ignore the waste of lives unfinished.
Your choice to engage in legal massacre
Renders all humanity diminished.
Will we never learn?…
