WAR CRY

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.”

... Ernest Hemingway, 1946

“Two armies that fight each other is like one large army that commits suicide.”

... Henri Barbusse, 1916

YOUNG NICOLAI

Young Nicolai was made to fight.

He didn’t think that it was right

but sometimes men just have to do

what men are told and march on cue.

The Leader said, now, here’s a sword,

chop someone up if you get bored

but make sure it’s the enemy.

You’re going on a jolly spree

and there’s a shield to keep at bay

those you may meet with on the way:

unpleasant types that might resist

your presence, but you must insist

their land is yours, you have the right

to seize it. Should they dare to fight,

just do some chopping, kill a few

and lots of medals will accrue.

Young Nicolai was very scared

and as a soldier, unprepared,

to go off with a sword and shield

to battle in a neighbour’s field.

To his surprise, when he got there

it didn’t really seem quite fair:

the enemy had such small knives

and some of them were daughters, wives,

in fact, not quite the monsters he

was told the enemy would be:

they had no swords or shields at all.

A stout babushka in a shawl

waved her old fist and cried, go back

(a strange way to repel attack). 

The worst of it was that they seemed

so much like him. He never dreamed

that enemies, the sort we cuss,

are pretty much the same as us.

Brave Nicolai fought a good fight:

he chopped to left, he lopped to right,

but, by the time that he had stopped,

so many still remained un-chopped.

It seemed that they would not submit.

He tried to make some sense of it.

but, though he pondered, long and hard,

amidst the rubble, black and charred,

no answer came. That’s hardly strange,

for war is war. Things never change.