“Justice Has Been Served”

Vengeance is mine
sayeth the horde
Revenge is sweet
so sweet they cry
Other-blind, their Jesus tears
must be avenged
for them alone mere justice
will not satisfy

Outnumber, outgun, cast out
a virtual mythology
dispenses real-blood death
No Jedi here, nor Samurai
the overwhelming Force
is with them and
honour, truth, their faith in law
bends to expeditious lie

In its blood-stained birth
This Achillean state
was, is, will ever be
deaf to Hector’s plea
Just because you can
does not demand you must
in Kabul, Baghdad and Saigon
or even Wounded Knee

When faith is blind
in any name or creed
to the blood of innocence
or turns its deafened ears
to the unsolaced truthful cries
of other hearts, of other minds
their pain will go unrecognised
and echo down the years

‘Not in my name’ Jesus weeps
‘nor mine’ the Prophet says
force of arms democracy
is just Manifest Destiny
in another guise
‘Kill the Indian to save the soul’
was, is still, in present form
a manifest obscenity

So as they whoop in glee
at a single, well-earned death
a grey-haired wise man’s face appears
chanting to the drum of time –'no','no'
What do you know of such things
they scream at him - just go!
Listen to the spirit of the earth he cries
Live, don’t kill, in the name of Geronimo