Penny Rock

PREPARING FOR WAR

It’s not a simple thing,
Preparing for a war.
Supplies are too numerous to mention
For the aftermath of blood and gore.

Have you given any thought
To the macabre list of needs?
They’re ordered for the children
Who die for adult sins and deeds.

War isn’t a backyard child’s game.
Death’s not signified by a playful punch.
You can’t send them out to fight,
Then call them home for lunch.

The supplies needed are consumables.
Inventory anticipates need.
Those customers would have been our future.
Now they lie upon the ground and bleed.

Have you thought about what’s needed for a war?
Perhaps you’ll benefit from instruction.
Here’s a little sample of what’s required
When you embark on youth’s destruction.

Of course there is a need
For artillery by the tons.
Trucks, and tanks, and ambulances,
And ammunition for the guns.

Helmets and uniforms of camouflage
That don’t disguise the human form.
Radios, rockets, mortars, grenades
And choppers and bombers are the norm.

Journalists and photographers will be mobilized
To chronicle the story of the war.
Some will do it with integrity.
Some will be buzzards to the gore.

Do you feel prepared now for the war?
Do you have all you need for winning?
I’ve so much more to tell you.
That was only the beginning.

One Hundred Thousand High School Boys to be sacrificed as fodder;
Renewal orders for several hundred thousand more.
Prosthetic devices of all limbs,
Extra skin from a bank for grafting,
Crutches for the lucky
Wheelchairs for those who aren’t.
Glass eyes to spare the sensitivities of others;
Bags of blood and platelets.
Dog Tags – two each to identify you when you’re dead.
Food rations that may be edible;
Medications for disease indigenous to the host country… “host” being a euphemism.
Medications for pain, infection, blood volume, and hydration;
Special ointments for burning flesh… that won’t stop burning.
Thousands of medical personnel inducted.
IV bags, poles, needles, and tubes;
Enough dressings and bandages to swaddle the earth.
Myriad tubes to insert in every orifice… natural or manmade;
Bottles to collect the drainage that courses through the tubes.
Medical equipment from surgical instruments to respirators;
Coffins ordered to meet the need for increased volume.
Stone engravers notified so inventory can be enlarged.
Standard letters drafted to notify families of their loss.

You’ll need to order body-bags.
No need to be concerned with size.
Don’t worry about the color.
It’s just a cloak to shroud demise.

You’ll need the largest airplanes
For shipping home the dead.
Don’t forget to strip search them.
No words of objection will be said.

Has the payment of their lives
Finally settled our shameful debt?
Be careful what you prepare for.
We haven’t learned our lesson yet.