War And Peace Poem by Lonnie Hicks

'There is in this world that eternal battle'
the General said
'between Good and Evil.

There can be no compromise;
each nation needs living space
and those who follow Evil
will not hesitate
to take yours
and that means,
some of the time,
War.

War is the ultimate expression
of Evil vs. Good
and inevitable.'

Peace spoke:
War is for those who profit from War
and every war ends in Peace
and diplomacy,
Why not skip the destruction and killing
save human lives
and go straight to the Peace?

Nation-State spoke:
Ah, you Peace forget War
is more than the interval between
the Peace
because War decides which people
will be free
and which people will be oppressed.
Peace you misunderstand;
soldiers fight to preserve their country-mens' lifestyles
their families
and those five dollar lattes.

Ah, indeed in War and Peace
someone wins
and someone loses' Nation-State said.

Peace spoke:
Well, Nation-State, that used to be true
but not anymore.
Nuclear holocaust has no winners,
only losers.

A radioactive planet
where no one can live
for a thousand years
is not victory
but massive defeat for everyone.
.
Nothing to celebrate.

You '
Peace said
to the General
'cannot fulfill your main mission
which is to protect the population.
The foe you fight can blow up
all of their nuclear weapons
and the fall out will drift and kill
the rest of us
without even an attack.

You soldiers have to learn new tricks.
You can't really protect us.

All that is gone. You have to retire that side-gun
and sit at the diplomat's table.

'Peace 'Peace said'
has come to depend upon successful social ecology
and restraining those who would have us kill ourselves
in order to preserve our lives.