War Is A Racket

The poem takes place from the perspective of a soldier whose country is involved in a civil war.

The gunshots 

i hear them every day 

i hear screams of men who been slain

Some of them garner fame 

But most don’t grow a name

Is it cause they lacked bravery 

Didn’t run into a machine gun’s nest unwavering

Didn’t pass the test 

Dying for dead men

Oh, i hear them again

Shots, lots of them

Bomb dropping again

Another push by men who once we called friends

I know a man at the enemy line 

We were good friends at a time

But he moved far away

Into the Folly of greedy man’s Play

He rolled dice 

Won maybe twice

He was a broken man 

Way before this travesty 

But I knew him at a time

Before the southern states said it was time

And broke away because of pride

Oh why, oh why

Must it be this way

Brothers v.s brothers

Father v.s fathers 

Oh the inhumanity

But who am i to speak

i am a solider

“Brave to die for one’s country”

But i wish to do no such thing

Not in this way

i wish not to kill my brothers

It is only the politicians who’ve engaged

The rich who’ve engaged 

Corporations who’ve engaged

We the people don’t care about this folly

We’ve suffered in peace

And now we die in war

I hear them growing near

Furthering a cause they know isn’t theirs

But those in power called this fair

Oh what a wonderful thing it is 

To die for a cause forced upon you

With the message that if you don’t

You’re family shall surely die

So your death is simply paying the bill

To ensure the life of “the right side”

But history surely is written by the winners

I wonder

How many were the wrong side?

“War is a racket. 

It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest,

Easily the most profitable,

Surely the most vicious.

It is the only

On international in scope.

It is the only one 

In which 

The profits are reckoned in dollars 

And the losses in lives.”

War is a racket 

And yet,

I give my life to thy.