If they could still be watching,
what sorrow they would feel,
at seeing that we did not learn;
how war still rules our world.
But soldiers are our shadows,
and no war truly just,
just lives the powerful sacrifice
to hegemonic lust.
We tell ourselves it's justice,
these battles then and now
but ghosts of truth will haunt us;
hypocrisy revealed.
If time peeled back its layers,
then we would see so clear,
that there is little honour;
no death can be redeemed.
These men were ghosts before they died,
phantasmal and destroyed,
by battle's bloody terror;
by truth so long denied.
Fate had made them killers,
for some ephemeral cause,
and sold their souls eternal;
as every war has done.
There's very little honour,
or glory in it all,
and even less integrity,
no matter what we're told.
The blood, the death, the misery
have taught us nothing much,
for if they had then war would be,
a phantom ghost itself.
http://margoroby.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/ghosts-of-the-past-on-tuesday-tryouts/#respond
A very powerful piece, Ros, with lots to think about.
ReplyDeleteBut soldiers are our shadows
ReplyDeleteThese men were ghosts before they died
for if they had then war would be,
a phantom ghost itself
These lines pull at me, as does the theme of the poem. We don't learn, do we?
No, we don't learn or if we do it is very slow and we go along with our governments waging war on others as long as the bullets and bombs don't reach us.
Delete