Double Speak - Poem #33

“Guns don’t kill people”
is what it says on bumper stickers;
so I guess it’s we who drop the bombs
and predator drones don’t fly alone.

Some would say that war is rational;
diplomacy by other means
no different than the thought one gives
to difficult treaty trade agreements

except for the dead upon the field;
for them it’s not a “war on drugs”
which after all is not a war
just a form of double talk.

War is killing by the state;
killing people plain and simple
calling it a “use of force”
  eliminates the blood of course.

Double speak aims to deceive
to make the killing more respectable;
deceiving not just all the listeners,
deceiving writers just as well.

Our killed in war “heroic fallen”
occasionally by “friendly fire”
the “shell shocked” were once “battle scarred”
now “post traumatic stress disordered”

Women and kids shot dead by troops
“fog of war” in lines of fire
the little boy who lost his eyes
“collateral damage” on Reuter’s wire.

And who with such a child in mind
an innocent who lost his sight
in asking Jesus take our side
would sing “God Bless America”?

The blinding of a little boy
should haunt us to the end of days;
but tearless are the enemies of peace
as we “move forward” to a “healing” phase.

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