No man would drop a deadly bomb
Upon a neighbor's place--
Regardless of the other's creed
Or politics or race.
Yet nations goaded by greed
Will push their boarders where
Another nation dwells in peace,
And rain death from the air.
No man would strike another down
For some imagined wrong
And celebrate his victory with
The hollowness of song.
But nations on a thin pretext
Will devastate a land
Then bring back honored armies
To the blaring of a band.
No man would wreck another's
Sacred treasure of the heart
That a life's been spent in building
From a dim and distant start.
Yet a nation will despoil the things,
With hard and cruel face,
That have come down through the centuries
As the legacy of race.
(First published in Along the Lane: Dedicated to the memory of Thomas William Larsen, who lost his life in World War II)
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