Mesopotamia, cradle of civilization.
A pilot surveys a shattered landscape,
A bomb dumbly drops: destruction.
Pointless relic of the fatal, futile footrace for
Global dominance, cultural hegemony,
Mastery over the fields of oil.
Will the power-lust of our leaders ever be sated
Will they squabble over the final drop?
Senseless slaughter, spinning the cogs of war.
The petals on my poppy are white
A symbol of hope still shines bright.
Look on, ye mighty and despair.
For we will not succumb to lies,
The propaganda pumped through the press.
To divide and conquer us all.
We are all one people.
Around the globe, the realisation:
We are the many and they are the few.
Without us, wheels can’t turn.
Occupation, strikes, solidarity.
To end the waste and suffering
And build a new society.
Andrew Walton's Blog 
November 19, 2011 at 2:24 pm |
You’ve said it all in this one piece, and so well, plain and true. I really like this and am glad you posted it. I don’t know anything about the white poppy or where the money from it goes but I know that I have been used to giving to the red poppy cause as a means to support the service families ( or that is what I was led to believe). I would be interested to know more. I totally understand and respect you for writing this.
November 19, 2011 at 8:46 pm |
Hi glad you appreciated the sentiment – the white poppy campaign is organised by the Peace Pledge Union. I actually support the red poppy campaign as well – it isn’t service families that are at fault for the violence. http://www.ppu.org.uk/
November 19, 2011 at 8:54 pm |
Notes: “Mesopotamia” – birthplace of Sumer – oldest known civilisation, in modern-day Iraq; “bomb dumbly drops destruction” – alliterative; dumbly contrasts with “smart” bombs; “spinning the cogs of war”: spin=lies, also play on “dogs of war”, echoes “wheels can’t turn” in the final stanza; finally, I like the half-rhyme of “solidarity” and “society”.
I changed the line “A bomb dumbly drops destruction” to “A bomb dumbly drops: destruction” – the caesura (pause) echoes the time taken for the bomb to fall and slows the rhythm even more. Another possibility would be “A dumb bomb drops: destruction.” – but I prefer the second version. Dumbly – silently, impassively, unforgiving.