Eyes: Those Tragic Eyes, Poem by ivor or ivor.e hogg

It was her eyes, those tragic eyes
The saddest eyes I ever saw.
That made me start to realise.
The price that children pay for war.

Those eyes had seen brutalities
no innocent should ever see
She haunted still by memories
from which I fear she can’t break free.

I look into her eyes and see
that she expects nothing from me.
She has no hope that there might be
an ending to her misery.

Although I know I’m not to blame
I still feel guilty all the same.

Though we protest our innocence
in our attempts to rationalise.
What can we say in self defence.
That is not based on blatant lies.

It makes me frankly furious
that innocents should suffer so
The guilt belongs to all of us.
We can’t pretend we did not know

That we should learn from history
instead of choosing to ignore
Because we do not want to see.
There are no winners in a war.

I can’t forget those empty eyes
They’ll haunt me ‘til the day I die.

Monday,08 November 2010
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