The POTW: Verse Til It Hurts

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POTW #810
(Week of 19 August, 2012)
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What started me down this path was a news article about a local guy with some kind of crazy axe to grind having to do with people on bicycles.

Holy War

The overloaded infantry marched slowly up the road
Porcupines of ordnance with balls of ammunition
Things that cut and things that burn and things that can explode
Steadfastly and proudly they assembled in position

Rank on zealous rank of all the righteous and the true
Prepared to mete out justice to the heinous and the wrong
Somewhere on the battlefield, the sound of a kazoo
As the soldiers started singing an obliteration song

And floating in the harbor, a cantankerous armada
A force prepared to dominate the rivers and the seas
Shooting long-range cannon in a booming bass cantata
The kind that stirs the blood between the stomach and the knees

While overhead the drones and bombers buzzed a locust rage
Circling and diving in a vicious mating dance
Eloquence of purpose made them eager to engage
Raining down on enemies like pesticide on plants

A titanic mighty army poised to tear the world asunder
To carry out its self-appointed sacred holy goal
Shouting out authoritative fury, blood and thunder
Fighting with intolerable heathens for control

And later, when the infidels were slaughtered to a soul
We asked with equal parts revulsion, disbelief and wonder
How anyone could hang the paper over the top of the roll
When clearly the creator meant to have it hanging under

Copyright © 2012 by Dave Grossman

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