It is hell in the trenches!

 

It is hell in the trenches!

The front line soldier has a limited horizon

enclosed below the walls so high,

such mounds of dirt easily disturbed

and liable to cascade down covering everything.

 

Orders are given without regard for life or limb!

The higher echelon has no concern for the grunt,

generally the lowest or the least individual controlled.

There are professionals who have a choice to be what they are

and they negotiate to buy their maximum personal protection.

 

What is war?

Is it the armed conflict fought with bullets and bombs

or is it the direction of people against their will,

individually and collectively, by those who believe control

is held by their persistence and pressure?

 

Management suggests that it is the role of managing;

the method determined to obtain a given result,

whereby the unwilling are forced or coerced to give.

Dignity, personal value, spiritual responsibility

are given up upon the perception of fair reward.

 

Life has many options set within the bounds of style.

The simplest pathways are not always the easiest;

freedom of choice may not be available,

action is forced only for the benefit of the result,

which itself may not benefit the participants.

 

War has become sophisticated!

Modern armaments remove personal contact.

Missiles accomplish what they are created for,

even to the aggressive downsizing of their target.

The commander does not have to see the destruction!

 

It is hell in the trenches!

The filing clerk is soon redundant.

Even those who felt secure are soon discarded,

the responsible use of power has been betrayed;

loyalty has no recognition or continuing reward.

 

The rules of engagement have changed!

You were told, “Ask not what your country can do for you...”

Remember if those who are accountable

accept no true responsibility, who will face the tyrant?

who will face the oppressor? who grants you your right?

 

You are told that if you resist society you are the anarchist!

You shall be the slave, born into your position.

There is no release to the giving of servitude,

there can only be one place for you,

do not venture beyond your social status!

 

Revolutions have been bloody!

Death is the loss of life;

Yet... sometimes it is the loss of ideal.

Wars are not always fought with guns,

blood is not always visible.

 

The oppressed are soon driven

to gain possession of respect and value.

Invariably there is a fight, or even a battle,

with the forces who themselves once stood

as the opposition of the day’s event.

 

It is hell in the trenches!

For some they are not deep dank holes.

They are the bread lines or the soup kitchens,

the debtors court, devoid of care, the trappings of poverty.

Ideally they do not have to exist!

 

Will George ©  1997