A Measured Response Poem by GORDON GILHULY

A Measured Response



an eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth

these murdered children alone in their hot dusty graves
retain their baby teeth long after your tanks have rusted away
they do not lose their innocence
in the wearing away of long days
on the road to being men and women
to having their own children
to moving into the slippers of old age
they are children forever
tiny fragile monuments to your evil

soldiers sign up for death
they put their names down on the list
that says dying is your life
theirs is the brotherhood of kill and be killed
choosing to be mailed home in their final pay packet

but not my son

crushed under the weight of his collapsing house
singing quietly in the arms of his shattered mother
exterminated by a single high explosive shell
from your 120 mm tank cannon
where is his contract?
where is the justice that he should die?
that hundreds of his brothers and sisters should die?

babies annihilated
to avenge the death of a single soldier

A Measured Response
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