Tag Archives: War

Burning Flags

Many a child was inspired by a flag

To leave home on a bus and return in a bag,

To struggle and clash with another boy who

Was raised by a flag without red, white, or blue.

It may be a purpose to live under fire

Until you return or in glory expire,

But I seek a purpose where no flags will fly

And a world where no child is inspired to die.

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Tyranny Bugs Me

There they were, two armies,

One in black and one in red

Swarming from their anthill

Knowing one must soon be dead.

One was sponsored by Les Schwab Tires,

The other by Steve’s Work Pants.

One army shouted “We will be victorious!”

The other screamed “Death to tire ants!”

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Things That Lasted Waaay Too Long

First there was Vietnam

Then the second gulf war…

Now I’m curious how many years

The Amber Heard trial goes for.

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One Upside To WW III

In a positive twist on current events,

It seems the number of incidents

Of accidental gunshots dropped

When everybody suddenly stopped

Tolerating anything Russian,

Which apparently included pushing

A swift end to games of Russian Roulette.

So hey! Take what good news you get!

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Something Worth Fighting

Captain Daniel Anderson

Stood before the 3rd infantry

And called out, “Men, a moment!

“We’ll soon meet destiny.

“Be brave! Be bold! Remember

“That we served each other well.

“Now on we go to victory

“Or tonight we’ll dine in Hell!”

Well Captain Daniel Anderson

And the 3rd infantry fought

With tooth and nail, but doomed to fail;

Their efforts came to naught.

So once again he called out

“We did all that we could do.”

Then they sat for dinner

At a party thrown by you.

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Holding On And Letting Go

It’s not because she loved him

That she held the stranger’s hand

As she stepped aboard the Gallant

Which would take her from the land

Where the nightly cold and hunger

And the daily war and tears

Were all she’d ever known about

For all her 16 years.

It’s not because of longing

That she watched the coastline fade

As the sounds of need grew silent

Beneath the ocean’s serenade,

And it wasn’t to remember

That she fumbled through the sack

That contained some dirty souvenirs

The few she’d time to pack.

She held and she remembered

And she watched and she was sad

To lose her lonely, painful home:

All that she ever had.

It wasn’t for nostalgia

That she spent her many nights

Remembering the land of famine

Where she had no rights

Even though she had a new home

In a land of peace and rain.

It was simply that she knew

She’d never see that home again.

She held on and remembered

Before she slept, and she was glad

To now be somewhere better

Than the only home she’d had.

The refugee became a nurse

By the time she was all grown

In the only land of promise

That she had ever known.

She helped the people coming

From the homes they left behind

Who, like her, were forever

With their homelands intertwined.

Still she held on and remembered

To now distant fear and strife

And she turned her eyes to helping

Others make a better life.

She never knew the gentleman

Who held her hand that year

With the eyes that stared uncertainly

At his passing drawing near,

But she whispered to him gently

Through the hours of the night:

When you leave a home of pain behind

You’ll go somewhere alright.

He held on and remembered

And saw and understood

And closed his eyes and sailed off

To somewhere that was good.

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Love and War

Whenever Italy gets attacked

Someone must fell Rome,

Someone conquers Cicily,

Burns a Venetian home…

Yes, in an Italian conquest

These sackings are the staples

But a satisfying extra

Is somebody licked their Naples.

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The True Cause of Violence

Private Johnson swam onto

The beach at Normandy.

I’ll not describe the horrors

Which that soldier had to see.

He killed opposing soldiers

Because command insisted.

Imagine how it would have been

If video games existed…

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Fade To Black

To the victor go the spoils,

The diamonds and the oils,

The right to raise a flag above

A world that’s not their own.

To the losers, the defeated,

Goes an anger ever-heated,

Simmering for generations

Within each descendant’s bone.

To the watchers, the supporters,

Pulling strings and giving orders

Goes a power of oppression

And, with it, endless pain.

To the peaceful, to the no one,

Goes the best life in the long run,

Remembered in the darkness

Which always will remain.

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Japan, 1944

The waves were crashing on the shore;

It was a lovely sight.

The fireflies caroused with me

Amidst the starry night.

The sand, still warm with faded sun,

Was soft beneath my feet.

Then my house was firebombed

By the US Pacific Fleet.

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