On CNN an American officer showed
how accurate their missiles are hitting military targets and nothing else.
Thrilling just like a video game
and no pools of blood or dead bodies to make the viewers queasy.
On the net I saw a boy’s head split open like a watermelon
carelessly cut in half a warm summer’s day,
the body of a man so mangled
that it looked like a carved up carcass in a butcher’s shop.
His face was untouched,
eyes wide open and green as the North Atlantic Ocean.
This was deemed too brutal for a refined western eye.
No, war isn’t a video game,
when we lament the death of allied soldiers
we should not forget that they signed up to fight wars
civilians did not.