17 Comments
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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

It isn’t necessary for a foreign country to invade us. It isn’t necessary for us to invade another country. There’s no reason for all of this. War what is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

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Joyce Wycoff's avatar

It must be "good" for something ... we keep doing it.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

Upon this torn and silent expanse,

Where once was life, now only chance,

For soldier and child, mother, and sire,

Each drawn into the maw of fire.

Steel and stone, heart and bone,

Riven by the war's insatiable moan,

Where the young lie down in endless sleep,

And the old are left in sorrow to weep.

Who can number the tears that fall?

For each shattered dream, for each lost call,

The soldier who marches with hollowed eyes,

The child who weeps under smoke-choked skies.

There is no victor on this blighted earth,

Only the echo of what was once worth,

The dirges sung for the breathless dead,

The quiet lament for the words unsaid.

The cry of the ravaged is all too clear,

Yet drowned in the drumming of fear,

As we search for meaning in the bloodied mud,

And find none but the truth of the flood.

What glory can there be in the taking of life?

What honor in the kindling of strife?

When history's pages are soaked with grief,

And the mourning is endless, relief but brief.

In the silence after the cannons roar,

Lies the poignant question, the core:

What purpose serves this ruthless war,

When love is left to bleed from the core?

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

How about if we pretend to embroider and crochet and drinks cocktails instead?

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Joyce Wycoff's avatar

Best idea yet.

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Joyce Wycoff's avatar

Maybe at too high a price, but the poetry of war stirs us, perhaps makes us more aware of at what cost it comes. Thanks for the reminder.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

I found that writing down my feelings my thoughts snippets of words and response to something or just because it flittered around in my mind helps me survive.

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Joyce Wycoff's avatar

I understand that need. Go forth and snippet.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

Ha! Go forth, and snippet should be embroidered on a pillow for my couch

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Switter’s World's avatar

Empathy and grace. Without them in abundance, it will go on forever.

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Mark VanLaeys's avatar

"I don't know what to say or to do" might be a most appropriate response to the unthinkable being done again in hopes that it might undo the unthinkable that was done before. So tragic that it is so human when there are other options.

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Aussie Jo's avatar

War is horrible and it should be stop because what does it really achieve

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