The Last Great Hate

The Last Great Hate Countless are the dead In graves unmarked, Lost in jungles and the deep Cool repose of oceans and lakes. Burned beyond recognition and identification Reduced to atoms wandering unseen. Countless are the dead In graves marked with ritual head stones, Celebrated in story and song, Comrades in the death of the brave Honored in valor blind, as acts of reason Faith, fealty and flag. Countless are the dead Made enemies by the color of a uniform The emblem of a flag, a holy book, The color of their skin, or a different tongue, Loyal to an oath prescribed By those who dictated their demise. Unspeakable are the atrocities Of men who tremble At the words: commonality, Brothers and sisters in humanity, Preferring warriors and enemies, And the bestiality of power. Unspeakable are the atrocities Of men who have given Knowing license to unleashing The darkest corners of our being In the name of ennobled killing And savage desperate depravity. Unspeakable are the atrocities Of those who speak Of the honored warrior, Slaves to their decrees of destruction, Marching to the drum beat Of primeval slaughter. When The moral war has ended Who will count up The unborn killed in the Wombs of their Mother’s; Who will explain Why a child Must live Maimed and in pain. When the moral war has ended Who will tell the truth Of why a Father, Mother or lover Has died and Why all the medals And tri corner flag is more important than life. When the moral war has ended And the masters of power Are ashes and dust, A trillion lives shattered On their lies of honored sacrifice, A world no better Awaiting the last great hate. We have lost the war, The war of words, the war of idea, The war of principle Because we honor the warrior Sworn to an order to kill even us; To uphold the right of barbarism. We have lost the war, As somewhere approaching dawn A rifle is cradled set for the kill, The aircraft glides to rain death from the sky And iron vehicles prepare to roll over human flesh Amid all the fires of hell man can generate. We have lost the war To salvage civility from condoned savagery In name of all that is different, And like a God we have a self-ordained right To remake or destroy Humanity as we see fit. We have lost the war In The Last Great Hate.