Such an abyss between sweet peace and war!
Which one do you want to be living for?
Alas, most people do not have a choice.
In government, they do not have real voice.
But myth of democratic government
worldwide continues to be prevalent.
War follows war—begins, continues, ends
with floods of blood on which such war depends.
The uniforms that young men proudly wear
in sick mythology of war ensnare,
enabling them to ignorantly dare
to injure, kill, destroy most anywhere.
Much as a fighter suffers from war’s strife,
war’s stress extends to lonely children, wife,
who may succumb to bombs and bullets, too,
just as combatant husbands, fathers do.
Between civilians and such soldiers, war
discriminates poorly about death’s door.
Death’s the prime product of the war machine;
destruction, too, with trauma in between.
Ukraine and Russia struggle fruitlessly.
Their young men kill each other uselessly.
The battle lines in that bi-national state
shift back and forth, with such unhappy fate!
May warfare in Ukraine end, peace return again,
and normal life come back to women, children, men.
Hamas’ attack on Israel has caused debate,
Which notes that Israel’s an occupying state,
while Gaza is a non-state, occupied,
with many more times citizens who’ve died.
The current escalation of that strife
is causing cruel and shocking loss of life.
May deaths immediately cease, not just decrease!
May both sides try far harder to exist in peace!
This Gaza conflict, 2024,
is prime example of a horrid war.
It wasn’t necessary, first of all—
deaths indiscriminate the most of all.
Eight billion citizens around the globe,
regarding war have patience of old Job.
They watch and cringe (or cheer) and let blood flow
as always in cruel wars since centuries ago.
God help all victims of this human madness
and end war’s awful suffering and sadness,
bestow blest afterlife on those who die,
and comfort somehow thousands who must cry.
May war in Gaza and Ukraine be unreal dream!
May all wars everywhere be anatheme!
I pray this prayer today with all my heart.
May all wars end and no more ever start.
Please join with me in prayer and with your acts.
Urge everyone to learn war’s ghastly facts:
that war destroys God’s blessings of this life
replacing them with the most awful strife,
that war cannot compare with blessed peace,
that somehow we must all make all wars cease.
AMEN!
Robert Cable grew up in peaceful South Dakota, USA. With a B.A. from Harvard in 1962, he declined a U.S. Air Force commission to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) with the Peace Corps in Peru instead, then with various other organizations in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and USA. As an Associate Member of Veterans for Peace, he has been a peace activist in the Boston area for several years. Bob was married, divorced, and has three children.
© Robert Cable
