About War Poem by Effie Yalena Steyn

On my left stood Custer, Lincoln, and Josef S.
with gleaming buttons and faces of stone
And to my right waited Napoleon, Mohammad,
Karadžić , Franz Ferdinand, with
Henry VIII up high on a throne.
Forward stepped Joan of Arc, and with no mercy
sent Ho Chi Minh's head bouncing down the hill.
With a cry of anger Churchill stubbed out his cigar
on Pol Pot's face, before moving closer to
Goerring, in for the kill.
To the sound of trumpets a cavalry charged
and naked Zulu warriors countered as
arrows flew and hatred grew and in my heart I knew
that this was not right,
or fair
or true.

As Hitler fell to his knees, dispatched by
an errant bullet from George Bush's gun
A foolish Brown pleaded for listeners and
declared that he had won.
But Mullar Omar had other ideas.
taking Nelson's sword,
he spilt more blood onto the ever-reddening ground.

From the pages of fiction leapt Rudolf Gloder, D-503, and Zeus,
who went to work on the remnants of the Crusaders,
with JFK's orders.
A cannon fired
and all was quiet.

I shouted 'Gentlemen! '
and Kate Adie coughed.
I spread my arms and said 'Friends.
What are we fighting for?
We have this one world, and no more.
Why are we insistent on conquering what is not ours?
And where has the light gone? And the sound of laughter and the smell of flowers?
How has humanity descended into this-
the slaying of another man for what?
For what?
For kicks?

About war- why do we fight?
You know it is not right.