Onward Western Soldiers

Onward Western Soldiers

Onward Western Soldiers,

March across the sand,

To a shanty city graveyard;

A, stateless, baron land

Of regret and ruination:

No merchants, markets, stores,

Colleges, schools, playgrounds;

No Windows, roofs, nor doors.

Under obligation

They stay there for a while;

Shell shocked survivors,

Questioned, put on trial;

The innocent and guilty,

In prison cells confined,

Fester with resentment,

For all of western kind.

The conquerors, on fleeing,

Leave a nation led

By bribe corrupted puppets,

Complying in their stead.

The jailed, emancipated,

Emboldened, unrestrained,

Rally round a caliph

Hastily ordained.

Gatherers flock and listen,

In numbers ever more,

To Proclamations spoken:

Liberation, holy war.

Weaponry’s obtained,

And ruthlessly deployed;

Slavery, rape, torture,

Justified enjoyed.

Their stake upon the nation

Is a caliphate

Of high tech savvy zealots;

An Islamic State,

Enforcing ancient laws,

From the seventh century;

Live streamed executions,

They send to you and me.

Citizens in terror,

Flee the tyrant’s claws

Purchase perilous passage,

To distant, western shores,

Where bedroom jihadists,

Drawn by warfare,

Make toward the desert;

Join their brothers there.

Some of them may return

As refugees disguised;

The innocent, scapegoated,

Hence, equally despised;

Atrocities committed

In western cities now,

Paranoia mounting,

Populists gain power.

History disregarded,

Forces well prepared,

Guns are locked and loaded,

Total war’s declared.

Drones and missiles flying,

Middle Eastern bound,

Kids are crying, dying;

Boots are on the ground.

Onward western soldiers,

March across the sand

To an old familiar graveyard;

A death infested land

Of rubble and reminders:

Past, present, future wars;

No orphanages, hospitals;

No ceilings, walls nor floors;

Another obligation,

A fallacy fulfilled:

A cleansed population,

A caliph captured killed,

Conquerors retreating,

Suffering, grievance, pain;

Survivors left rebuilding,

The cycle starts again.