I REMEMBER WAR

I remember when war was popular.
We ate the bullets and bombs at mealtime
and tallied "them" and "us"
just before the daily weather forecast.
We slept soundly in peaceful beds
and knew not the confirmation
of stinking blood and rending smoke.
Conscienceless tanks ruled another world
while young boys went happily to their deaths
in the skies in Hawker Hurricanes.

Good times and slaughter loved each other.
They clung together in political blessing
a sort of perpetual insanity
smugly toasted even at funerals
under patriotic flags.

We knew solace and smiled with tears
but the hurt of war passed us over
and left us with a strange sense
of soldiers who never went to battle.

Yes, I remember when war was popular.
We were young then, barely touched by madness.
The face of war now wears another mask
yet still deceives in the same old ways.
Just when we think we know its terms
a new vocabulary transmutes
and we must learn all over again.
Yet our fascination never ceases.
As the blood flow of others increases
we who live war in the news
still dream warmly in our Sunday pews.

(Eye of The Wolf)