When You Begin A War Poem by RIC BASTASA

when you begin a war
and start it now
do not discount the possibility
that you too
like any other human being
gets hurt
captured tortured and even die
without any name
to the vulture in that desert
eventually
as an unexpected eventuality,
an added casualty
to the war
that you have just began to wage
on this page
of history who shall soon solely decide
the guilty
without discounting the possibility that i could only
be you
the guilty one
the sore
loser