…On War

On The Eve of War

by Carey Lenehan © 2002

We’re bringing chaos to your lands,
with loaded weapons in our hands
and tanks that leave a legacy
of mutant children and disease.

We’ll bring our coca cola aims
and play our sordid little games,
for profit, pride and arrogance,
Illuminating our advance.

We do not like the things you do,
the threat you bring to our fast food,
the possibility you might
stand up against us when we’re right.

You don’t fit in with our beliefs,
You look like murderers and thieves.
We cannot trust the things you say.
We will not let you live your way.

And then, we need to pay you back
for that terrorist attack.
We’re well aware it wasn’t you,
but it doesn’t matter, you will do.

We’ve sold the world the fallacy
that you will take our Liberty,
threaten our whole society
in all its rich variety.

We’re going to take your lives away,
change the way you have your say
ostensibly to ease your toil,
with covert aims to own your oil.

And so we’ve come to change your lives,
annihilate your kids and wives.
We tell the world we’re in the right
but all we want to do is fight.

 

 

*****

 

 

 

To be a Terrorist

by Carey Lenehan

 

Ask yourself,

What does it take to be a ‘Terrorist’
To put cities and nations, under the fist?
Steal a passenger plane, take a bomb on a train
Killing bystanders, enemies, one and the same
What does it take?  Too much hate, too much pain?
Very brave? Very angry? Very stupid?
Mental strain?

Here’s another ask…

What can it feel like to  be on that train
with a homemade bomb at the base of your brain
Sweating finger on the button
Of impersonal destruction
Just a man, just a woman,
following instructions?
Maybe think of the future, of waking tomorrow,
safe and unharmed, with no regime to follow

What faith does it take to obliterate
Yourself and all those in your personal space
Workers and shirkers, mothers and sons
Husbands and daughters,
The old and the young?
What hatred is needed to render deceded
Innocence, sucking it’s thumb?

consider this….

Maybe…
Someone coerced you, fed you a lie,
Convinced you of Glory, a place at God’s side
Taught you to hate, see non-believers as waste
To be wiped of the face of religious debate,
Oppressors, digressors, capitalist proffessors
Opposed to your opposite religious state
So you clench every muscle, use belief to placate
as the train nears a point
predetermined by fate

What thoughts clog your head?
‘Is it true, when I’m dead,
I’ll be safe? I’ll be saved? Do I believe, in my heart
All those things that they said?’
What strength does it take for your finger to move
Press the button and BOOM, end all thinking,
for good?
Smashing glass, rending iron, sending soft
bodies flying, twisting flames, faithful games
Good lives smashed into dying
for the Martyrdom gained and herewith applying.
Perhaps not ashamed, for there are
others to blame,

What does it take to be a terrorist?
My friends…
all it takes,
is anger,
fear
and Faith

 

 

*****

 

 

War Against Terror?

by Carey Lenehan

 

Hunt on wardogs, seek, scent, destroy
but,
do not try to pretend this is more or less
than a new game, a new toy,
new lives to end

Bring your marines and their backup teams
Try to make us all embrace, extra wide doors and
plastic taste, show us your shiny grin and tell us how
you can fit us all in.
Only you, it seems, may hold the key to dreams.
Only your ideas are valid in this world of pain.

Gentle Buddha can’t compete with the stamp of
marching US feet, Mohammad’s mountain moves away
but
like the truth, as seen by us, it grows stronger every day.
Freedom lives in the minds and hearts
of all who see and hear through you and yours.

Don’t pretend, don’t lie, don’t tell us fairy tales
Perhaps you can blindly conceal what you really are
from the broken minds of those who voted
and gave you the button… but I see behind the mirror

I see

I see

You talk of freedom, you believe in yourself,
but you want the world to look
pleasing to you, safe to your safe, free to your free
Would you be surprised to know, it doesn’t seem like that
to me?

Because we know that you don’t love us, we know
you are just… Hungry.

The world watches you dance with wolves
We see how you smile,
how you love the teeth

Terrorise us if you must, but do not pretend

it is we

who are the terrorists

 

 

*****

 

 

Warmonger Humans

by Carey Lenehan

 

Each generation feigns the same games
Toys in the wood, boys in the hood
Subterfuge, secrecy, toy guns exchanged
A whole world of new chaos just a short step away
Too bad, too crazy or too blind
to change

Each turning century runs the same course
Innovation depends
on war without end
Human personality condoned and endorsed
As we market our futures for sub-primes and futures,
spun on politics charm and
too mad, too lazy,
too hooked on the harm

In this new millennium games pave the way
for a new age of fools and new forms of play
Global security, profit and pay
armies untouchable,
no rules in the way.
Too childish, too aged
too wicked to change