The world is witnessing
footage of tanks being pulled by tractors
and the world being pulled by bad actors
perceiving it differently
some with shock, others callous laughter
watching the country Putin is after
watching it distantly
in order to avoid more disaster
or a Russian soldier’s blaster
in a frosty Eastern European fridge.

It’s not just about burning one bridge
because we’re all interconnected
so other countries interjected
taking umbrage
with the taking of suffrage
so other bridges start crumbling
under destruction wondrous
and Russian tanks rumbling
so politicians start stumbling
to dissuade the invasive horde
while not getting too involved
fearing further diplomacy dissolve.

Controlling the center of the board
is a good way of beating your opponent in chess
but nobody wants in the center of this mess
so both sides lean forward more
aggressively guarding perimeters
that Ukraine falls in between
now the world waits and sees
in a war started under Demeter
if the frostbitten bleed.

As nightly, screens scream,
buckle, near break
with images of blistered humanity
abroad
with normal folk caught
in quick-quick-slow anxiety,
at home
a fat clown
knights a *****

Where have all the assassins gone,
I'm just asking,
Where have all the hit-men gone,
It wasn't long ago.
Where have all the psychos gone,
Ones like Sirhan Sirhan,
Or a crazy red Russian,
Lining crosshairs for Vlad Putin.

Where have all the agencies gone,
I'm just asking,
The MI5, the CIA,
KGB, Mossad;
Where have covert actions gone,
When there's guys like crazed Kim Jong;
Or a crazed Red Russian,
A narcissistic Vlad Putin.

Where have all our heroes gone,
I'm just asking;
Where have all our leaders gone,
Not so long ago.
Where have all fine Russians gone;
Boris was their last good one;
When will we ever learn,
Ego-maniacs can't govern.

Rich men wage wars
Why don't they fight them
Politicians,oligarch
Soldiers dying for what?

Rich men sending away poor men
To die for some more money
Some more power
Some more land
Just some more
And more
And more

No side is the saint
All of them, narcissistic egomaniacs,f**k them
The cost is paid by those who don't know what it is even for
By the innocent
What did they do?

And God never punishes the evil,only the innocent
For absolute futility,families lose their children,people lose their nation
For what?
And you can give me many reasons to justify
But how do you justify death
Can you give them back what you have taken

And you can give many speeches
But can you tell me why is the old mother crying
Why is that road red
Why is the little boy orphaned
What did they do?
What is there fault?
Why bring us into your sick games?

And afterwards you celebrate
But has any war ever been truly won?
Both sides lose something
Your soldiers are not my enemy
Just humans,thinking he is doing the right thing



War is the cost of peace,peace is the cost of war,a cycle of death,destruction and madness
Madness,absolute madness
Tyrants thinking they own us,and they do

One man's ego ruining millions of lives
How can someone be so evil
It is their war,of the rich,why are we fighting

No you can't
However much you try you can justify mindless killing
Not a single one of them
Not a million

We are not guns or tanks that can be bought and made
We humans who live and laugh,have beating hard
We aren't collateral damage
And if we don't die we starve

You may ask who are we?
Many more than you estimate
Who are you?
This blood,this death,this destruction
And you paint the dead as heroes and martyrs because you can't give them their lives back

All the money in the world going to **** people who have nothing to do with it
Peace is not profitable
Peace is not in your interest

Gory glory
Red rivers
You say its for good
But don't you shiver
When you see the tears
In the widows eye
The orphan children playing with wasted guns
How do you sleep at night?

Who is right who is wrong
The left or right,I don't know
You say,"us or them"
There is no them
It's only us,this whole world ,this is us,you are the 'them'
Just tell me one thing before you call me coward
It's blood on whose hand?

People dying
People crying
People writing songs on wars
On the sieges and victories
And the pointlessness of it all

Love will win
Peace will win

Love will win
Peace will win

Love will win
Peace will win

Love will win
Peace will .................

Cry.
Don’t cry,
Do not hang your head, my neighbors.
You cannot choose when you die,
When your woes are straining,
The careful muffled sound of heartbreak
Of the deep silence of the souls.
A giant **** in his own backyard,
It is “ride or die”.
And you can choose how you die.
And nothing more, and nothing more.
And we’re no more, and we’re no more.
But be alive, alive and only,
Alive and only to the end.
Wind, keep singing for them, do not wane,
And in it, now forever.
Arise, arise now, brother-soldier.
Freedom is never free.

Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                   “The Result was Silence”

          "Today I initiated a telephone conversation with the President
          of the Russian Federation. The result was silence.”

                               -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy

There is no silence in Kiev this dawn
Morning commutes, intermittent news feeds
Explosions. Power failures. How many will die
Without finishing their WORDLE today

Old men rattle their dentures in outrage
Sky News reports a couple of police officers
In the street below, smoking cigarettes
Which makes more sense than most things just now

Kharkov’s air-raid sirens are deeper than Kiev’s
There is no silence in Kiev this dawn