The ghosts of war don’t only lie dead on the battlefield, they live in the hearts and minds of those we lead into war and send back home wounded mentally, emotionally and physically, and the destruction of families and towns we leave behind. The young children and fatherless families whose homes are in ruins, the ones we claimed to liberate but actually left orphaned by war. The women and men we send to fight the wars then forget about once they‘re home. Is it truly a victory when we see towns, cities, and families left in a world of bombed out destruction then ease our conscience saying we liberated them? They aren’t free, they’re devastated by monumental loss. You can’t bomb and kill for someone else’s freedom if your not willing to acknowledge and become accountable for the horror left in the wake. War is easy, costly but easy. Peace takes far more work but the outcome is far more rewarding. Don’t be anti-war, be pro-peace…..

Haunting blackness creeps amidst the home of the brave

Umbra’s of guilt and remorse obscuring many a lost heart

Bodies and appendages in blood-soaked jigsaw explosions

Troubled back at home worlds of survivors fall torn apart

Sent back whence they came like last weeks bad news

Shoved into halls of healing or lost attics to gather dust

Damaged oxide soldiers left to battle out in the street

Out so long in the rain their like the Tin Man they rust

Raison d’etre drowns in murky waters of battle

Perhaps the fortunate never return to burning scorn

Of the people they promised to lay life on the line

Who scoff while memories and souls are morbidly forlorn

The deaths of men and women sent into paths of destruction

Commune as the phantom civilians called collateral damage

War has no preference of whom shall own their sorrow

Nor who shall suffer from it’s murderous mismanage

Over the devastated fields of meaningless victories

The generals fragile smile glistened in the sunlight

But whenever the sun shines over innocence lost

Shadows of darkness are cast beyond the light

The defiant officer could sense his oncoming penance

Knowing one day his hollow smile destined nevermore

Chimeras and wraiths will gather in a punishing storm

Then he’ll lay beseeched amongst the ghosts of his war

Sorrow fills the cracks of the Generals once armored conscience

The strategic leader questioning his role of insanity

His legacy will be written in the blood of his martyrs

His guilt etched into his crimes of war and humanity

Then faceless apparitions will stand shoulder to shoulder

Held up by their loved ones grief both intense and internal

Past the homeless and misplaced wraiths of his mongering

The general alone to face his amassing guilt eternal

And the dark shadow from the caves and fields of his horrors

Fell across the floor and the walls of his now lonely room

A silhouette dangling from the rope of a misplaced destiny

A fitting end to the machines in which he created such doom

And the people will shake their heads and stare at the floor

When one takes their own life for the ghosts of their war