I've always needed to hear reasons... but there's a kind of morbid curiosity involved, where I know it's a bad idea to look at things too closely and yet I do it anyway.
Poetry Day
How different is this war we are fighting now. Compared to wars of the distant past.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) writes about a once universal irony among soldiers:
'Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
'But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
'I shot him dead because --
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
'He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like -- just as I --
Was out of work -- had sold his traps --
No other reason why.
'Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown.'
In this current war of ours, i doubt you'd find many on our side who'd share Hardy's poignant sentiment.
by annika, Oct. 6, 2004 | link | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
Rubric: Poetry
This election is different.
Y'know, I think we all wanna pretend that we don't need to know why, and that we're all open to finding out why.
But the truth is, we'd all be better off knowing why.
We all wonder why ....
I wonder why, and she doesn't respond ... and still I wonder.
It's such bogosity to pretend that we don't wanna know why,
regardless of how awful the truth is.
Well, sure, part of me wants to know why, but I realize that I'll be more sane in the long run if I don't.
We want to know, but we don't know that we'll get the truth. Sometimes, when relationships go bad, truth is the first frickin casualty. Better to let some time go by before inquiring.