Revenge, Sweet Revenge

As the blackness of night now slowly yields
before brilliant colors of dawn, the small band
of men prepares to set afire the farmers’ fields,
to plunder the settlement, kill the enemy, every man.

Within their hearts so hard dwells a lifelong lust
for revenge – revenge for ages of hatred, hostility,
and violence between neighboring nations, who must
religiously strive to fulfill a birthright of futility.

A father to young son, “This day you will first taste
the sweetness of revenge against our evil enemy.”
Soon the fields are ablaze; the settlement is laid waste;
the arrow and sword have yielded a murderous catastrophe.

The young son comes upon a terrified girl not yet a teen.
Her eyes pleading, she trembles before him...“Mercy?”
The son lowers his sword, but his father says, “It’d mean
one day she’d bear sons to fight against us, don’t you see?”

Hearing, the son thrusts his sword...her blood is mightily spilt.
The carnage continues until all are slain. Thereupon, the son
surveys the bloody scene, seeking the sweetness...He’s knelt
to pray, “Forgive us! Shall this unholy crusade ever be done?”

As the blackness of night now slowly yields
before brilliant colors of dawn, the small band
of men has a desire for revenge that each man feels.
“With rockets and rifles, we will kill all the enemy we can!”

And so, for centuries a lust for revenge each generation keeps...
while the innocent suffer, and in Heaven every angel weeps.


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