HERB WELLS
AN UNFAMILIAR PEOPLE
The war is here...
and I must abandon my lazy peace...
to join the others...
moving against those now called...
the enemy.
I will carry...
the heavy manufactured instruments...
of death and devastation...
to a place known before...
only to mapmakers and world travelers.
With all my strength...
I must tear apart the solid walls...
and strong beliefs...
of an unfamiliar people...
marked now on the wrong side of history.
With clever weapons...
designed for bloody purpose...
I will pierce and rip those bodies...
wearing strange clothes...
and speaking gibberish.
I will know fear...
but deep below that fear...
I've been told that God ...
is on my side...
and He would not let me die in such a place.
And when I see...
the twisted heaps and bloody shreds...
of what my hands have made...
I will feel victorious and Godlike...
with the howl of the beast inside my head.
And when I think...
all these were men like me...
my heart will shrink with shame...
and I could almost wish...
those were my shreds and not theirs.
Almost...
but not quite.