WHAT IF SOMEONE CALLED A WAR & NO-ONE TURNED UP?



‘We have to fight to keep the peace
It’s not our fault we kill,
We fight to save a lot of lives
And not for some sick thrill.’

But what if someone called a war
And no-one did arrive?
All the innocents dying now
Each and everyone would survive.

Wars are fought for killing
And not to keep the peace,
The coalition of the willing
Puts a cease-fire out of reach.

And so we go on slaughtering
And tell ourselves it’s right,
We may not win, but we won’t lose
We have power; we have might.

But what if someone called a war
And no-one started killing,
The redneck league would start fuming
Because no blood was spilling.

THE END
© Copyright 2021 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

About this poem

Well we can hope. But unfortunately people allow themselves to be stirred up to a jingoist fervour too easily. From the politicians' point of view it is easier to stir up jingoistic racism, than to make the effort to actually run the country. Under Bush, Obama, Trump America went twenty years ungoverned, with all three evil tyrants relying upon jingoism to get them re/elected.

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Written on 2008

Submitted by PHIL_ROBERTS on August 06, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
11

Quick analysis:

Scheme abxb Cdxd eaex efxf Ceee xxx
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 674
Words 129
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Phil Roberts

I turn 65 on the 31st of January 2022. I love cats, rock music, and horror fiction and poetry more…

All Phil Roberts poems | Phil Roberts Books

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    "WHAT IF SOMEONE CALLED A WAR & NO-ONE TURNED UP?" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/106486/what-if-someone-called-a-war-&-no-one-turned-up?>.

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