Poetry Contest

First Place

Wars

By: Brynn Claypoole

Junior, Providence High School

 

Day 1:

It began with a scrap of good.

A fight between two men

became a battle between two families

became a war between two tribes.

Weapons were little more

than fists and rocks.
Day 2:

“It was mine first!”

Mere children’s logic

spurred on a territorial war

over a miniscule strip of land.

Having forgotten the suffering of their fathers,

the men cried for a fight

and raised their primitive weapons.

 

Day 3:

One man claimed his God

was the most omnipotent and wise.

It is only natural for another man to begin a crusade

over such a horrible misconception.

God told me to fight for him.

No God could be better than mine.

My universal truth is more truthful than yours.

Logically,

I cannot be right

unless you are wrong.

 

Day 4:

Freedom is a natural right

and you have taken my freedom.

“ Independence !”

becomes the battle cry.

There is no more control.

There is no more cooperation.

There is no more respect

for the almighty crown.

There is only blood

and the end negotiation

between the discontented people

and the incompetent ruler.

 

 

Day 5:

One attacks his brother’s property.

He cites the natural differences-

the governments,

the social systems,

the interpretations of the law-

between the two as the cause

and twists it to justify killing his own kin.

Only madness and ignorance

can explain the number of young men dead.

 

Day 6:

A little fight between a few nations

spreads like a pandemic.

The proportions are colossal;

billions of people are affected.

When the entire planet is involved,

the entire planet is on edge.

This was the war to end all wars.

Miraculously,

all races of man survived

only the find the world fundamentally unchanged.

 

And on the seventh day man came to end all of his destruction;

and on the seventh day he took his rest

from all the destruction which he had done.

Rather,

man found a short repose

before the start of a new cycle of war.

 

Man has learned his lesson.

He has learned how to improve his weapons

and his defense

and his war strategy.

The mentality remains:

after this war,

when this enemy is dead,

the world will be a better place.

History has proven this mentality

to be entirely false;

humans have proven their capability

to be completely ignorant of the past.