Why?
Men make war
Increase their power
Land and possessions
Domination and control
Politics and ideologies.
Masters brainwash boys
Do before done to
Fear, fear
Enter the unthinkable
Cut, smash, burn
Destroy and kill.
Rape
In the height of battle
Weaken the enemy
Strike at its treasure
Total annihilation
Infiltrate seed
Children changed forever.
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To read the full poem, purchase our book, “A Crack Between the Worlds”, here. It doesn’t cost much and it will enrich your life!
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Copyright © Helen Gosch 2009.
(Photo: Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.)
Background to the poem, told by the author:
It was in 1954, and I had my first puppy-love boyfriend. I met him at the roller-skating rink. He had an old black car, some kind of a 40′s coupe he had souped up with two exhaust pipes coming up from the motor, one on each side of, and higher than, the windscreen. My father was always the first one to hear the hot-rod coming along the street to pick me up for a date.
He was from a poor, dysfunctional family living in a very small town nearby Sheldon, Iowa. His father was a drunk, his mother was very sweet, but as she had given birth to 11 children, she was pretty much a wet rag. His name was Ronald, but everyone called him Squeak.
I was 14 when Squeak turned 16 and decided to enlist into the U.S. Marine Corp in order to get away so he could make something of his life. My father was the one, who along with my mother and me, drove Squeak to Sioux City on the day he was to go away. He was sent off to Camp Pendleton in California.
When he returned from boot camp some months later, he gave me what I think was the first real reality shock of my life…..because I still remember it. I asked him what it was like at boot camp and he told me how the sergeant would shout “What’s the purpose of the bayonet?” and all the recruits would have to scream back, “To Kill, To Kill.”
Years later, in 2009 to be accurate, I still remembered this phrase and wrote this poem.
