Ban war

Ban war

and all who sail on that stinking, sinking ship

of fools with muskets, swords, swearwords, filthy rum and murder.

Those killers on every continent,

waking at dawn, having a yawn,

grabbing guns, making puns 

about how many lives they're going to slay today.

Bloody fools.


They tried to ban the bomb, you know,

decades ago,

woman especially, didn't want to lose another son,

another brother 

or see their sister place the cap of widowhood 

on her stooped and weeping head.

"BAN THE BOMB" the masses shouted,

flags, posters, banners touted, and the protesters marched

and marched, for miles and days,

wearing out footwear, their cries and the music, slowly gathering

into a worldwide malaise.


"Give peace a chance," John sang,

we all sang too, clapping, chanting, hoping  praying.

Come on and lay down your weapons,

your nightmares of destruction,

wrought by dirty rotten governments trying to rule the world and not save it.

And we're all out of words as we pass a tatty baton,

that's somehow survived centuries of bloodshed and carries

the dust of our ancestor's bones, and hope,

the sacrifices and loyalty of men who tried to save the world,

not kill it......and yet, if you listen closely


 daffodils call out hello from the earth you thought was dead.



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