We Went to War in the Morning

   
We Went to War in the Morning

We saw the sun was sinking
Towards  our planet’s west.
We were soldiers, tired and seeking
For a place in which to rest.

It was evening, when we struggled
To hide ourselves within
A ditch, all wet and muddy—
And dark—like clinging sin.

We were woken, in the nighttime,
By the crying of a bitch
And then the cries of puppies,
As we hid within the ditch.

We cursed then at those puppies
And at that bitch that cried.
We tried to sleep but couldn’t,
Until that crying died.

We could see, where clouds had parted,
The stars that shone on high.
We saw those stars were shining
And hoped we would not die.

******

We went to war in the morning.
We went to war at dawn.
When the sun had not yet risen,
We'd woken and we’d gone.

We'd left behind the puppies,
We'd left the dying bitch.
We'd heard a stray pup crying,
Who’d fallen in that ditch.

But we were off to battle.
So who had time to spare
For her, that dying mother,
Or could, for puppies, care?
 
And when the day was over—
How many mothers dead?
How many children dying—
Or better killed instead?

We wake, when day is breaking.
In time, we sleep again.
We're born to go to battle,
To give and take of pain.

  

******

We then had followed orders
Or fought like devils might.
We’d lived in death and dying,
In horror and in fright.

We'd seen the sun at noontime,
We’d seen it blazing bright.
We’d seen, through squinting eyelids,
A planet filled with light.

We’d heard the cries, the shrieking.
We’d heard the boom, the roar.
But then there came a silence
That told us what’s in store.

We saw the sun to westward.
We saw it sink and go.
And where we next were going,
By then, we’d come to know.

We’d seen the elders burning.
We’d seen the children burn.
We felt the planet turning
And knew it was our turn.

******

We’d seen the sun arising,
We’d seen the sun on high.
And as that sun was sinking,
We  knew that we would die.

And so, as shadows lengthened
And someone softly cried,
We struggled still to live then,
As one by one we died.

And who would find salvation
And who would end in hell,
That evening, after sunset,
It was hard for us to tell.

We're born, it seems, to suffer.
We're born to die in pain.
We rise, to join the rushing,
Till time to slow again.

We went to war on our planet.
We went to war at dawn.
But when the day had ended,
What planet were we on?

2016 February 1st, Mon. morning
Brooklyn, New York