By Mairo1:
Is it in this age,
That civilians roast in nuclear porridge;
That a brother’s bowels are baptized in Novichok gas?
Is it in this age, mother,
That citizens perish from reckless bursts of gunfire?
Is it in this age, father,
That brothers are delimbed by cutlass on cafeteria pavements?
Is it in this age, sister,
That parents rot en masse in mass graves in the Katanga and Rwandan plains?
Is it really in this age, brother,
That birthdays are celebrated in smoke dust and gunpowder;
That connubial rites are solemnized on deathbeds and slaughter pavements;
That toddlers are initiated into butchery and bloodshed;
That siblings feast in brawls and human plunder?
Is it in this civilized age
That presidents bully each other like schoolboys?
I see no hope for the future
If civilizations continue to clutch at each other’s throats.
That will only hasten us to self-extermination!