How do you create a painting of war?
Follow these instructions, it's not much of a chore.
Start with a canvas innocent and pure, and eager with delight
Add a background of red, with runnels and globs,
for the blood that will be shed.
Add shades of brown, brushed together,
for the dirt and dust and mud all around.
Add tints of yellow, mixed underneath,
for fear that every hero feels beneath his courageous bellow.
Add swirls of black, darker than a coffin buried deep,
for those who won't come back.
Add swipes of blue, dotted with teardrops,
for the widowed families that have to start anew.
Add stars of silver, shiny and bright,
for the unattainable goals that war will never deliver.
Add blots of gold, tainted with crimson,
for the children that parents will never again hold.
Add bars of green, stained with sweat,
for all the money to feed the machine.
Listen carefully, you're almost done.
Now stir the colors till they become one.
Now take the canvas and wipe it clean.
What have you accomplished? The same as the machine.
Nothing!
by Donnie Gillespie
... who is a computer technician and freelance writer of fiction
and poetry, with work previously appearing in this magazine and
in his local area.