War

Source: thestar.com
Who really knows
why it explodes
after sitting there
silent for years?

Who really counts
the deadly amount
of red flesh chopped
off the living block?

Who ever sees
the depth of disease
down to the bone
of our cold heart-stone?

Who ever stops
the air-raid of thoughts
that instantly kills
the good that was built?

Who can control
the horrific flow
of dark blood that seems
made to make seas?

Who can explain
why again and again
again and again
again and again
it always takes
incredible place?

Greg Kennedy, SJ works as a spiritual director at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre in Guelph, Ontario. He is author of Reupholstered Psalms volumes I, II, and III; and Amazing Friendships between Animals and Saints (Novalis Press).

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3 Comments
  • Peter Bisson
    Posted at 01:57h, 28 May Reply

    Thank you Greg!

  • Richard Grover
    Posted at 09:31h, 28 May Reply

    Good questions/good questions Greg. Your reflection reminds me of a song on the hit parade some 50+ years ago….whose title/chorus kept asking “Who will answer?” Richard

  • Wendy McCreath
    Posted at 10:31h, 28 May Reply

    Your poem reminds me of Eric Bogle and John McDermott’s The Green Fields of France, described as the best anti-war song ever written. A young man sits by the grave of a 19-year old killed in France in 1916 and ponders: ” I can’t help wondering why/Do those who lie here know why did they die?/Did they believe when they answered the call/ Did they believe that this war would end wars?/ Well the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain/The killing and dying were all done in vain; For, young Willie McBride, it all happened again, and again and again and again.”

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