One Hundred Years
The war to end all wars ended exactly one hundred years
ago
That war failed in its objective of making war and
bloodletting obsolete
Just like the bow and arrow is now outdated war was
meant to be
The renderings of battle and conflict consigned to the
history books
When children ask their parents: WHAT WAS WAR?
The answer should have started thus: Well child...
But that scenario never happened because war is still
with us
The old soldiers never grew old and their memory lives
on
As their great grandchildren prime their guns and prepare
for battle
Places like the Somme, Ypres, Verdun. Paschendale and
Flanders are here
Inside the souls of the Tommie, the Poilu, the Hun and
more
Poppies commemorating the sacrifice and everlasting
memory
Worn with pride by people like myself and my kin and
my friends and family
Yet in places like Afghan and Syria and Iraq and
Ukraine men fight and die
Death and destruction still rule the battlefield by blast
and bullet
Weapons have advanced like smart bombs, jet fighters
and missiles
Being a millennia on from biplanes, barbed wire and horses
Each soldier and each fight is mirrored thru history
by another
Wars and battles complement one another in their
ferocity and aim
Enemies must be defeated and military objectives
achieved
Only the year and location changes while the soldier’s
names fade away
To become unknown soldiers in our collective hearts
and minds
Passing over before their time and entering the
history books
Some are a footnote, others in heroic battles and a
few forsaken
Every generation since the Great War owes it to the
past to make peace
And keep hold of that peace forever more and spike the
guns and grenades
So our world knows peace and harmony in an eternal Peace
Dividend
The Military Industrial Complex being used for
something better
Future warriors being out of work and doing new jobs
Think of the past and that awful Great War and what we
can do now
Turn our world around and remember the sacrifice and
cost of Total industrial war
Let no more warriors die in no more wars except in
books, games and films
Remember our great fallen warriors and be humbly
grateful and act their deed
Universally advancing world peace and making war
obsolete forever
