The Shadow of War

The Shadow of War

Darkness once again falls

heavily upon this tiresome human world,

yet another feeble-minded

arrogant and stillborn leader

devoid of compassion,

emptied of grace and kindness,

possessed by self-imposed demons

rattling around within a demented brain

imposes his will through the

soft bodies of those who do his bidding.


Shadows of war

propelled by ridiculous dreams of empire

sustained by puny minds

unable to see the horrid future they project,

unwilling to embrace the pain and suffering

they inflict,

unreceptive to the laments of mothers

over the children forever lost to the shrill

call of bombs and bullets

as explosions rip through the fabric of neighborhoods,

unrepentant for the death they distribute

to the innocent like candy,

for all the blood and bones and carnage,

for all the wrecked lives and distorted hatred

injected into the future,

unable to embrace all of humanity as equals,

ever ready to crawl into bed

with hollow and pointless death.


Shadows of war,

a long and tiresome story

revisited again and again

the litany long,

the dark foreboding song always the same,

the list seeming endless,

stretching back

to the very beginnings of

civilization.


How long can Homo sapiens endure?

how long can the natural world

upon which we depend

sustain us?

when we choose

chaos over harmony

needless death and unimagined suffering

over love and life,

darkness over light,

stupidity over real intelligence

over and over again.


Darkness once again falls

heavily upon this tiresome human world.

 

Excerpt from an Ongoing Work entitled, Reflections

Life is an exquisite experience. Appreciating existence through the medium of a self-conscious brain (mind) is beyond the realm of ordinary discourse. Perceiving the living world in all of its multifaceted layers and trying to uncover some of the many inter-related facets is a wondrous endeavor. This is not an absurd attempt to over-simplify and sentimentalize the experience of living. Existence, as we all fully understand, can be painful, uncompromising, disappointing, and often brutal at times. There is no guarantee at birth in regard to the duration, quality, or efficacy of the journey. We are, however, assured of its transient nature. We discover early on that the cosmos is essentially unforgiving and that we inhabit a rather ordinary planet blessed as it is with a breathable atmosphere and plenty of water caught within the matrix of a chaotic universe that moves us all through time and its unfolding events.

Yet, we have the capacity, with this sentient faculty to perceive beyond the simple confines of our home world and witness the immensity of this universe and can appreciate the worlds within worlds that exist within this earthly confinement. We may, as a species, break free from mother earth and travel the universe, or remain earthbound. We may flourish well into future time or perish as a result of our own inanity – depending on the choices we make. We shall see!