“Why, Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the
whole world – but for Kharg Island!”
-as St. Thomas More does not say in A Man for All Seasons
The ancient tombs reposed in holy silence
Temples, monasteries - for thousands of years
Fishing villages, trading ports, discreet piracy
Until the oil companies and armies came
The refineries now repose in temporal silence
Awaiting landing craft that soon may sail
To beach and burn upon the coral sand
As fresh new bombs and fresh young bodies fall
The corpses of our young will burn in sacrificial silence -
Had they lived
They would not have been welcome in the new ballroom anyway