Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage

A moments reflection
as we wait for imminent war,
to draw on vast knowledge
of what WE will cause.

Who really is the enemy,
the one we all hate
enough to want them
to never share breath again.

Is it the taxi driver,
if he is lucky, his job will most
certainly be lost,
on bombed out, broken roadways?

Is it the student,
whose ruminations will be trapped
inside the walls of his mind
until whenever?

Is it the wife of a holy man,
whose meditative voice,
will be completely
silenced, forever?

We put in our battle scarred raft,
at the headwater of a river,
upon which there is no calm,
no place to stop and change course.

What is collateral damage
and does CNN report it?
Is it our brave soldier
who loses his life for the cause?

Is it the material destruction
of inspired man's physical creations,
buildings and art poured forth
in torrents of creativity?

Is it the babies that won't be born
because innocent parents are dead,
or the ones that shouldn't be,
parents exposed to radioactive dust?

Is it the higher oil prices
that will burden already reeling
economies in every country,
from the United States to Japan?

We push ahead daily,
desiring to better our own world,
the one that we live every day,
and share with those close to us.

They are us, across the world,
their dreams and fears so similar.
What is this deep, heartfelt trepidation?
Our conscience dying... collateral damage.