A political poem, written after 9/11, about the mistake of fighting terror as you would a conventional war:
So many years! And now we
take for granted
What would have been
unthinkable before
The terror that our leader
called a war,
And life became more mean,
less sure, more haunted.
But was it war? Or was
that notion planted
By those who wished their
murders could mean more,
Puffed up to fit the
oft-recited lore
Of ancient enmities long
since recanted?
Oh, do not dignify them
with that word,
Or make them larger than
they might appear,
Or justify their murders
with our own!
There is no quick solution
by the sword.
Our only option is to
persevere,
Rebuilding bit by bit, but
not alone.
© by Nicholas Gordon
Audio and Video Music: Chariots
of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.
To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/soman1.html. For more poems about terrorism and 9/11, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/terrorism911poems.html .
