Collateral Damage
Social
Evolution
Cleanly Sliced...
With A
Selfish
Edge.
-Gray Squirrel
11-08-2024
To kindle flames for which the heart has yearned,
One sets out on a quest to find great love,
Each mountain climbed, no corner left unturned,
From deepest seas to endless skies above.
As sunlight pierces through a clouded sky,
True love awakens what was cold and still,
It finds its nest where deepest passions lie,
In spaces longing for true love to fill.
Yet in the strongest bonds, a fragile chance,
Should love be found then lost, one must accept,
A void to reach the depth of its expanse,
Is left within the space of love once kept.
To seek a love so deep, one risks its cost,
A price to match the weight of love, if lost.
The hardest lesson old age has taught me,
About life is that collateral damage will never let me be.
When I was young collateral damage was not real to me,
It was something dreamed up to by others with no plan B,
Those in Authority who could not see,
That everything should be free,
And no harm should ever come to thee or me,
With all accidents avoidable if they listened to me.
Sadly we all have to make decisions that will not please,
Everyone with whom we chose to shoot the breeze.
And the further up the chain of command we climb,
The more likely someone will lose a limb,
Or a life will be cut short before its time.
Having learnt that lesson,
I say to thee who have not yet had that vision,
Procrastination will only lead to a decision,
That may put more in heaven,
And leave few with a break that is even.
So, when you need to make a decision,
You will know time is never kind to those who are on a mission,
To make every decision,
From, a no one can get hurt, position.
Words left borrowed
heavy on the heart
Actions defaulting
stillborn and dark
Pawning the foundling
orphan on loan
Love unbequested
— dying alone
(Dreamsleep: April, 2024)
I used to think collateral damage was something,
Only Generals and politicians had to worry about.
How wrong I was.
No matter whether the decisions we all take are good or bad,
Others mostly bare the consequences.
And there is no use denying that fact.
Parents will have sleepless nights over the decisions they make,
Concerning their children.
Doctors will have sleepless nights over the decisions they make,
Concerning their patients.
Lawyers will have sleepless nights over the decisions they make,
Concerning their patients.
Friends will have sleepless nights over the decisions they make,
Concerning each other.
There seems to be nowhere to hide when it comes to the use,
Of collateral damage and sleepless nights.
So, maybe we should not hide from it,
Opting instead, to take those hard decisions,
Without fear or favor,
Because not taking them will not help us sleep any better,
And leaving them up to the generals and politicians,
May only up the consequences for us all.
Children's lives lost to war - a grave mistake,
Sad unforgiving abnormality.
Damage, collateral, for no one's sake,
Spurns norms of humankind's morality.
Failure to survive beyond the childhood
To heinous human criminals of war;
Fairy tales, flawed, as evil trumps the good,
As hopes of innocence cut short to soar.
Another war is on and children die,
Damage, collateral, for no one's sake.
A heavy burden cast on human mind -
Lost children tiny graves - war's grave mistake.
My children live to tell, well fed and bred,
Spared from destiny of mad men mistakes.
I laugh with them but furtive tears are shed -
For those lost lives my heart silently aches.
January 21, 2023
Collateral Damage
Written: by Miracle Man
December 4, 2021
Hurtful words flow smoothly from many a tongue,
like honey from the hive, but with stings of bees.
Thinking once spoken, that our song has been sung,
we seek forgiveness and a chance to appease.
Words often injure others, unintended,
some take pride being an expert at dishing.
Giving little thought to those being offended,
and collateral damage comes, post dissing.
With past words viewed as "water under the bridge."
filled with remorse some lingering days are spent.
Too late we realize we cannot abridge,
we contemplate at last where a good friend, went.
One can hear metal grinding on metal
making a mournful sound.
A rusted door swinging aimlessly.
The sounds of the death of a town.
Or, perhaps, a section of a city
infected with jobless blight,
a paved road crumbling to nowhere,
windows boarded up from the light.
Buildings that once contained myriad sounds
of workers and machines into the night.
The stream of workers changing shifts
became a comforting sight
Now, ships loaded with raw materials
pass silently in the night,
headed for more distant shores.
Money changed what was once thought right.
And why hasn't this obvious travesty
turned the lawmakers' swivel heads?
They're searching for that pot of gold,
never mind about industry's dead.
The ruins of collateral damage
are hidden by the lustrous Midas gold.
Old Glory sewn by workers' hands
is just part of our story told.
We've added new chapters that tear our hearts
as they tell of our greedy ways.
Our country is selling its inner strength
and it's the worker who finally pays.
My credit rating is suffering from collateral damage.
John G. Lawless
4/22/2021
No one had any idea about their game plan
X,Y were allies of z and their target was Khan
Z Zeus ordered his allies to attack Pathan
One day when Khan Pathan went to Bazar to shop
X and Y came there to cop
According to their pre planned drama they started fighting
During their fight Khan became their victim
X and Y cleared the whole matter in court
They said it is collateral damage
Z Zeus played the role of snake.
Note. First they create a reason to attack and
then they attack but not in all cases.
"A shame indeed!" they spat bitterly full of contempt
Their eyes showed nothing but disdain
Her knees on the earth
"It was a mistake "she confessed
But they had all lent out their ears
@napheeesarh
Blindly, they did cut off all bonds
Dejected she was for she was rejected
"Our Angel "they called during the best old days
"The pride of our people! " they crowned
"Does an angel bring disappointment? " she questioned
@napheeesarh
A single error brought an abrupt halt to all the love and trust
"Ain't I human"she wept
If only one of them could take a peak at her heart
And at least give an ear to hear her own side of the story
But no, "she is a whore!"
@napheeesarh
Her heart too damaged she wandered around the earth
And brought forth another being on the streets
Pulled together her cracked soul for the sake of her son
Alone and stranded,she moved on
Still lived pure, didn't give up
@napheeesarh
So true it was when they said time hides no truth
The son of a 'whore' now rules them
Their eyes starring at nothing but the earth
If only they had known that beauty is in the heart
And imperfection is in all
@napheeesarh
endless wars rage on
inconsolable parents
no children's laughter
See the human debris,
the scattered limbs torn apart
by shrapnel velocity
In so many Third World places,
the second-hand groan grafters
commit mercantile murder
in the first degree
Time encapsulated buried hatred
leech covetously
Flooding the colonial lands with booby-trap misery
Tick-tock waves of disfigurement crimes
against humanity
Collateral damage seep in deadpool faces ...
dark moral cavities,
where maimed charity bleeds
Mental scarlet stains of pain
are strewn everywhere
Empty eye sockets are separated
by full-metal piercings
Observe the void spaces between desensitized ears:
Lynch pinheads be blunt instruments
using indiscriminate force —
Spreading teary shattered hopes of detached fears
Awaken numb senses
to the non-negotiated reality
of prosthetic dreams
Dry sea of grief ...
landmine of crimson carnage
Deathly halt feelings collect the debt
paid by the broken living pieces
Why is there only morphine comfort
in hidden swaths of shame,
where phantom limb emotions
have metallic waves of saline releases?
I’m going to make you feel my pain,
I’m sewing hate,spool of misplaced thread,
Stitch my view, mistakes fed,
Wish I knew how to heal my head.
In my lane, going insane, never thought my thoughts would cane my brain.
Whiplashed, my mind splashed back
Only to attack my own body sake
Lonely In fact, my mind commits then redacts, admits then retracts , misfit in weighted slacks. Hissy fit in a trapped contradicted map.
Laid out to waste, can’t even come to trace, these steps that revolve around a torn state,
I was born in late, docs made a mistake,
Now I want to drop a bomb and level this whole place.
But not literally just in case the idiocy is too timid to see the truth in my taste.
Victimized by bullies
That come in every size
from aggressive children
to callous judgmental adults
frustrated and disillusioned
off their spiritual track
just being miserable
hurtful and unhappy
thrashing out their rage
at easy targets
at innocent children
who don’t understand
Victims of abuse
verbal and mental
malicious attacks
venomous messages
pounded in their brains
a bit less blatant
yet not much different than
throwing acid in their face
Sadistic name calling
becomes tapes that rerun
their whole lives thru
inside their heads
destroying confidence
Innocent youth
that will not question
or understand
AP: 2nd place 2020
Submitted on September 26, 2018 for CONTEST NO.500 sponsored by BRIAN STRAND
Originally posted on July 6, 2018
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