Change My Mind (rev)

(Formerly: I’ll Have To Change My Mind On War)

I’ll have to change my mind on war, I need
to take a break from structured thought;
there’s more to peace – it dictates a longer
oar to keep the calm than takes to generate
a little strife of warlike kind.

Our history as a people is a coven of dispute
and where we celebrate the life of freedoms
by repute it’s there the rot begins; so which
specific freedom do we celebrate? The right
to go to war? No need to answer mate!

What makes it right? It’s only right, of course,
to win. We say we celebrate departed mates
who sacrificed their lives so we are free from
tyranny; at least we say they died in sacrifice
for us – but, without a win, would it suffice?

I doubt we ever think outside the square of
regent reason, would be treason if we offered
views one might conclude hermaphroditic lies
or misconstructions of the truth so as to say
we could accuse our masters of collusion.

It’s no illusion that the aftermath of war is
ugly truth, a truth we hide in epithets and
sobriquets and bodies on the battlefield
we left to pay some filthy foreign debt.
And yet we talk of glory. Lest we forget!
© 26 June 2006, I.D. Carswell