by banned » Sun Nov 13, 2005 1:46 am
...came out of the The War to End All Wars, though this particular one is from The War After the War to End All Wars That Was Also Supposed To End All Wars. Unfortunately there will always be wars, but that we embarked upon the latest one due to rank filthy lies on the part of an administration that took office due to an illegal SCOTUS opinion and held it by election 'irregularities' even John "Skull & Bones" Kerry recognizes when he's safely off the record is, well, a war crime. If only George W. Bush had gone to Vietnam, and been blown to carpaccio minus the garnish!<br><br>Vale from Carthage<br><br>I, now at Carthage. He shot dead at Rome.<br>Shipmates last May. "And what if one of us,"<br>I asked last May, in fun, in gentleness,<br>"Wears doom, like dungarees, and doesn't know?"<br>He laughed, "Not see Times Square again?" The foam,<br>Feathering across that deck a year ago,<br>Swept those five words--like seeds--beyond the seas<br>Into his future. There they grew like trees;<br>And as he passed them there next spring, they laid<br>Upon his road of fire their sudden shade.<br>Though he had always scraped his mess-kit pure<br>And scrubbed redeemingly his barracks floor,<br>Though all his buttons glowed their ritual hymn<br>Like cloudless moons to intercede for him,<br>No furlough fluttered from the sky. He will<br>Not see Times Square--he will not see--he will<br>Not see Times<br>change; at Carthage (while my friend,<br>Living those words at Rome, screamed in the end)<br>I saw an ancient Roman's tomb and read<br>"Vale" in stone. Here two wars mix their dead:<br>Roman, my shipmate's dream walks hand in hand<br>With yours tonight ("New York again" and "Rome")<br>Like widowed sisters bearing water home<br>On tired heads through hot Tunisian sand<br>In good cool urns, and says, "I understand."<br>Roman, you'll see your Forum Square no more;<br>What's left but this to say of any war?<br><br> by Peter Vierek <p></p><i></i>