We Used to Tell Ourselves

Cherry

By Ewan

Tue, 08 Mar 2022
  • 1382 reads
7 comments
 

We used to tell ourselves

we’d joined to stop wars,

or at least the big, MAD one.

 

We joined to escape

the dole, the town, the home,

pregnant girlfriends, or – you know.

 

We learned over time and seas

how to keep ourselves amused

and how to fit in, at least a bit.

 

We won, or at least they lost.

Our gun was bigger than their gun.

Our way was better than theirs.

 

We still served, but the wars went on;

smaller, nastier, further away;

politicians talked of outcomes, not victory.

 

We watch: no longer involved

- too old, too angry, too useless

for a war we thought was won.

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Gathered Flowers
Miscellaneous

Comments

Submitted by Ed Crane on

Fact of life #1

 

 

Submitted by Ewan on

but there's been no-one like this since Stalin or Mao. The guy in Korea is not really a threat. At the moment the ideology is winning over the personality cult in China.
I really believe if we had negotiated the peace properly at the end of the Cold War, this wouldn't be happening now.
FS Lawrie (ret'd) 1982- 2005. Berlin, Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Your guns might have been bigger but I can't help but notice that the man in the middle (the Russian?) was the fastest drinker. Co-incidence? smiley

 

Submitted by Ewan on

That was my third and the Yank's second. Anatolij is about the only Russian I ever met who didn't drink much at all. Now his wing-man, when they brought a pair of Flankers over the following year...

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by lenchenelf on

we believed (or wanted to), not as fools, human.

To the point, as always, arresting piece.

best

Lena x

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

You are always helping me look at things from a new point of view! Thankyou.

There must be so many conflicts which could have been avoided if things decided after previous wars had been decided differently. Perhaps all? Is what I have heard about Africa, India, Europe, Middle East. Transient politicians drawing shapes in a present the future immediately struggles to escape.

anyway, I think this poem is great

 

Submitted by David Kirtley on

Great poem! You really show the feelings that no war is ever the last, that not all wars end, or end in what you can call victory, that even wars you think are over and settled can start again. Sad but true!