How Cruel Poem by Raymond Farrell

How cruel the wars men wage
Fought for dignity and grace
The hatred leaps from history's page
And chills you in your place.

Innocents are crushed and maimed
Left homeless in the street
Victory is gloriously proclaimed
Amid the horrors of defeat.

Now here and there a voice
Cracked, parched and dry
Begs drunken soldiers not rejoice
Or pass the dying by.

But mercy has no place
In futile bloodied wars
Launched for dignity and grace
Soon sacrificed on foreign shores.