What price, war?
Will it cost lives to both sides, and dignity and liberty to the vanquished,
Or more to our minds and souls?
Coercive force to gain a goal is the method of a highwayman or general, alike
Like a negotiator compared to a SWAT team
A diplomat is the choice over an army, at first
When diplomacy fails, the table is turned
And the drumming of war begins
And if the shaking of spears is not enough to alarm our neighbors into acquiescence
Then we must charge into their living rooms and make them see
The justness of our anger, the righteousness of our claims
And break things up a bit to make our point
Then, surely, we will have won
It never ends, of course
And we have never won
The will we exert through armies brings only glory
Never surcease from conflicting claims and power-hunger
When someone charges into your living room
Brandishing all manner of menacing toys
You may think yourself justified in defending your castle
By dispatching his soul to the next realm, if you can
I will offer him a seat and drink
And die if I must, a peaceful man
Now, it seems, we have looked down the block
And discerned that a neighbor with bad reputation
Has toys that he uses to torture his children
The precinct captains feel it is his own business
But here in our neighborhood, we have better and more toys
Which we use for justice
Shall we suffer the brute to continue?
We’ll appeal to the neighborhood council
But they might be swayed by the man’s close neighbors
Who all practice different ablutions than we
And who also give us trouble from time to time
So before we can be naysaid, we must rise
To jump down his chimney with our wonderful toys
And present this blustering bully with a bunker-busting bomb or two
Well, we did and it cost more than money
More than blood, more than peace
It cost us our choicest possessions and values
And the bill will always be due
Bones’ poem – June 2003