A Circle Of Good Men Poem by Gert Strydom

A Circle Of Good Men



(after Tony Harrison)

Around a table
the president, his cabinet
and some generals sit in a council of war
and these men
are traders of the bodies of boys
who have just left school

and they deal in corpses
when they send them into war
and as a return
get caskets with the dead,
battered, hardened, shattered
bomb happy citizens

and some receive dog tags
and have to write letters
to parents and wives

but do not experience the lost,
do not carry the cost of lost of income,
do not hear the crying
or see the aching
which death brings
to fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, wives, children
and friends

neither do they experience
gunshots, bursting grenades, falling bombs
piercing rockets
or having to crawl through sodden marches,
having to live on ration packs,
or local vegetation
as citizen force soldiers do
who have been called up
against their will

or see the humiliation, the poverty
or the effect of war
on the local population

but sit in their castles and palaces
living up the glory
of their positions,
living in luxury
as if they are gods
with the power
over life and death.

[Reference: "The Bonebard Ballads: The Ballad of Geldshark" by Tony Harrison.]

Friday, August 26, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: life and death
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Edward Kofi Louis 26 August 2016

Against their will! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom

Johannesburg, South Africa
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