War

This is a poem i wrote ages ago and i do mean ages ago. I showed it to my teacher and have shown it to one other person since then. I don't know why i wrote it. I was sitting listening to a talk at the Melbourne Writer's festival when I started it. It just came into my head. I'm not a very political person, in fact, i steer clear of politics whenever i can, so it was odd that this came out of me. I like it though, as i do most of the stuff i write, so i'm posting it here for you to see.

Greg, my boyfriend, is trying to push soccer on me as i type, but it is not going to happen. I don't do sport. I watch the football occasionally, but that's pretty much as far as it goes. He can try all he likes but it ain't happening.

My cat's prowling around my room at the moment as well and it is very distracting.

Anyway, here is my piece:


War


War.
Children dying, families suffering,
Why?
To fuel an ego? Pacify a nation?
Destroy a way of life to end an imaginary tyranny.
Do imaginary weapons create imaginary deaths?
Let flow imaginary blood?

Soldiers fight for the wrong cause, for no cause.
Families are torn apart by death, loss,
Hatred for the politics that killed their children.
To take a stand or not take a stand, that is the question.
To take a stand against the injustice of it all,
To fight to save innocent lives

But is it simply a matter of saving lives or taking lives?
Is everything that black and white?
No! Nothing is.
To be at war with a country, yet friends with its prince,
Is a form of treason, is it not?
To sit in offices and mountain hideaways,
drinking whisky or rum, while the little people fight their battles for them.

Soldiers are cut down one by one.
All nameless to the big men.
Just another body to fight a war of convenience;
A fake war.
A war that was fought in the wrong place, against the wrong people.
Why?
To save face, to scramble to regain what has been taken away so brutally.
Pride, security, hope.



I think it came from the war on Iraq, when Bush sent everyone in for no reason. I saw Michael Moore's film Farenheight 9/11 and, although i know it was sensationalised, it was the first thing i saw, ever, that truly made me angry, that truly made me hate someone.

My teacher, Catherine, told me it was too rhetorical and i have to agree. It is, but i think it works okay that way. She's a smart woman and she doesn't get enough credit for all she does.

I've been talking recently about moving to Broome, a town in Western Australia, and the more i think about ti, the more likely it's becoming that i'll go there. If not there, then i want to go to Cairnes, up in Queensland. I just want to get out of Victoria, try something new. I want to be able to say that i've done things, that i tried. There are some good jobs going in both of those places right now, but if i do go, it won't be til the start of next year at least.

A few people have alread expressed interest in coming with me, Greg included and it'd be cool if i had company. Never did like going anywhere on my own. I usually drag my mum with me when i go somewhere. She loves me.

Well, this post has to come to an end. I have some writing to do, on my fanfiction and my fantasy novel, so we'll see how they go.... I have work tomorrow too which should be cool. I wwork at a restaurant/motel and tommorrow is the day i get things clean for the start of the week. It's funny, i like cleaning up at work, but i detest doing it at home. Hmm.

Oh well.



War © Copyright Amber Hinds 2006