Veterans Day
Today men cry for dead soldiers
I cry for flowers
That will die covering our shame
Do not tell me that I do not love
For I love my country
And weep at canvas villages among the trees
Where mothers wring their hands to feed
Children left forgotten in our greed.
Shall I grow them then
To be cut down
Adorning man's desolation
They went to war not so much for the wrong idea of liberation
But it was only chance
They could escape the destitution
They had known
Waking morning after morning waiting to die
On some miserable street with the maggot and the fly
From a better desperation.
There is no malice in those who killed them
And they too killed
Those they did not know
But there is a pain where the cities are tent
And the hole in the parent's heart
The hole in wives', children's, husband's heart
Is a hole made by the emptiness of love
I cry because we do not love
As strong as we hate ...
The way I hate the memory of wars.
Copyright © David Smalling | Year Posted 2010
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