War Poems

by Suzanne Selby Grenager

IRAQ ATTACK

To describe the war against Iraq,
Even the word obscene falls short.
Excuse me, but in what perverse universe does invading a country
And bombing it to smithereens spell "liberation"?

"Democracy" and "freedom"
Ring hollow to these ears,
As a tiny band of men
Rams through a war that sunders worlds,
A war which almost all the world thinks stinks.

What New (or Old) Testament do our born-again
President and his hellbent friends read anyway?
What neo-conservative God hears their missionary prayers?

The One I know says:
Turn the other cheek.
The meek shall inherit the earth.
I am my brother's keeper.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,
Love thy neighbor as thy self.

What's going down here
Doesn't even measure up
To "an eye for an eye."

As the peace signs say,
It's more like
BLOOD FOR OIL.
Your beautiful children for my SUV.

God bless us all.
God bless us all,
The born again,
And the dying.

HATE IS HATE IS HATE

Our brand of fundamentalism
Is better than theirs,
Isn't it?

I almost used to think so,
Back when our believers
Kept their narrow faith close to their chests.

But now that they've taken to
Rolling tanks through distant deserts
And blasting foreign cities with our bombs,
(Not to mention breaking the bank and
Limiting our freedoms here at home)
It's hard to tell the difference.

Isn't a bully a bully,
A crusade a crusade, and
Murder just plain murder,
Whether it's done in "Allah's" name, or "God's,"
Or for our "security"?

Have we lost our collective conscience here, people?
Or are we too polite, or scared,
To call a spade a spade?
I support the troops and all
(Of course I do!)
I'm as patriotic as the next girl, really.

But from where I sit
As a citizen of the world,
Our Emperor looks buck naked.
I'm ashamed!

Will you kindly help me
Help him find his clothes?
Democracy hangs in the balance,
Here in our United States at least.

God Bless America!
And yes, God bless Iraq!