Caravan of Dreams

Collateral Damage

Collateral damage,

what exactly is it?

 

Is it a rock band,

perhaps heavy metal,

some obscure

auto insurance term

itemizing what's not covered

in case of an  accident

written in miniscule print,

a mistake a surgeon might make

in the midst of a delicate operation,

those individuals

indirectly injured from the

side effects of a nasty divorce,

debris left over from an

overzealous football game?

 

Collateral damage,

what exactly is it?

 

The stupefying carnage,

the chaos and mayhem that

accompanies ferocious and brutal violence,

the torrential flow of blood spewing from

shattered and broken bodies

separated from the yolk of the living,

the pungent odor released from

myriad corpses strewn upon fields of

overwhelming death,

the instantaneous incineration of entire families,

the horrific and bountiful products of murder

cannot be expunged by the simple application of

innocuous words in a vain attempt to

circumvent the reality of

such depravity.