When Soldiers Die on Battlefields
- Ed McCurdy
When soldiers
die on battlefields
Leave them where they lay
Let the bright and burning
sun
Their torn young flesh decay
Until the stench so fills
the air
That all the human race must
fill its lungs
And gasping cry
"Disgrace, disgrace, disgrace"
Disgrace not just for bodies
still
Not just for mortal stink
But for the spirit so controlled
That minds programmed to think
In jerk reaction acting out
the age old to and fro
That our traditions have ordained
The way all man must go
And that is wrong
A blasphemy against all creatures
of the earth
And dooms each new born thing
From the moment of its birth
All this must change
And change can be
For love exists
It always has
It is for you
It is for me
And if we stop denying it
We all together may agree
To search out and find a peaceful
destiny
For if we don't
And still go on with slaughter,
hate and pain
The agony will never end
And nothing will remain of
human kind or animals
Or sweet green grass
Or oceans deep
And we'll befoul our universe
Then truly will the angels
weep
© 1982, Ed McCurdy