"I do wish people would not deceive themselves by talk of a just war. There is no such thing as a just war. What we are doing is casting Satan out by Satan."
- Charles Hamilton Sorley (1895-1915)

mother of war
your captain
has fallen from above

why have you kept his name?
you who fed what tracked him

mother of war
remote cameras have imaged a crashing jet
its once angelic wings exploding in flight

only you saw his dark parachute
through the red purple haze

mother of war
your children now have no cause
they too have lost their thinking

in distorted compassion
they fight on
but only for their comrades
while your captain, sword in hand
drives them on from one killing to another

mother of war
when all that is left
is a list of their names
what will you do then?

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