From a far safe place,
Through a
sanitising computer screen
I see buildings
falling,
People dying.
Weapons
firing.
Rising smoke
I try to find
Scant hope
That this is the cigar butt of empire
Being ground out at last
On human skin;
But that hope is weak and thin.
Nebuchadnezzar
And before
him,
Emperors of
Qin and
The Sumerian
kings;
Then even
further back,
Before
people were people,
As Jane Goodall saw
Chimpanzees make war.
Does it run
through us
Like veins
through flesh,
Are we
enmeshed?
Trapped like
rats,
Fighting in
a pit
Whilst gods
look down
And laugh?
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