In the Footsteps of Elie Wiesel Writing Contest – 2009-2010 Poetry 1st place
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.