It Is Not That God Has No Pity (In Answer To Yehuda Amichai) Poem by Gert Strydom

It is not that God has no pity
on adult soldiers, who crawl
on all fours
and that He only cares
for small children and much less
for children at school,

any fool could believe this gibberish,
but when bullets whistle past your head,
you see comrades and the enemy dead,
how rockets penetrate through
the thick steel armour of tanks
and armoured cars

how grenades, landmines and bombs
explode shattering
you know that mere men
are doing and continue doing
these evil war things

and when you live through
this kind of hell
and come out unscathed,
still living
when your should have been dead,
you know that you are really worshipping
a loving and pitiful God instead
of the merciless one
that some are painting Him
as He has accompanied you
right through the dread.

[Reference: God Has Pity On Kindergarten Children by Yehuda Amichai.]