To my mind, it takes ungodly arrogance, unmitigated gall

To call manmade machines of war "Divine",

A Strake or any other kind or part

Of heartless slaughter

From a distance

We're all sons and daughters in the selfsame family

But when we focus on the differences too much

Such dreadful things we do to one another

Who should love each as our sisters and our brothers.

No more kamikazes, please

Gods' wind? Oh no. Perhaps a hurricane

Tornadoes, tempests, twisters

Merit such a name

But do you really think a techno-killing thing

Should so be dubbed?

To me it has the ring of something out of history

When certain people tried to rub out others

And claimed the right of kings.

We who remember thee lay down and weep

To see so many consciences asleep

Determined to repeat the past.

The Nazis, they were not the first or last

Instance of man's inhumanity to man,

Perhaps the worst? I hope.

But nowadays, if you are listening, you can

Once more hear the words intended to fob off

Responsibility for evil's banality:

"Just doing my job.

Just following orders." It failed to justify

Appalling acts before, and even moreso

It should not today. It mystifies me how

A decent person cannot link

The dots twixt then and now.

You'd think, wouldn't you, we'd not become

As monstrous as the ones we demonized.How did our egoes get outsized, and so ungracious

As to not apologize when we have acted hurtfully?

Our hearts need to grow more capacious.

And what of Nagasaki, mes amis?

They said the second dropping

Was to show there'd be no stopping

Short of unconditional surrender,

But I wonder if it weren't

For more data on survivors,

Not unlike other experiments by other so-called scientists.

The Faustian search for knowledge of this sort

Persists today

Else why would any government, say,

Want to explode a bunker-busting bomb so strong

It would disturb, distribute atmospherically

The glowing dust beneath the desert Vegasy,

Let loose detritus of atomic aged follies

On new generations -- just for jollies? Or

To gather information further on such crucial questions as:

"How many radiation sicknesses are there, really?" and

"If the prevailing winds are blowing down Hollywood-way,

How long will it take for the resulting deaths of pesky rich liberals

Who oppose first strikes and Fourth Reichs?

On my bookshelf is a copy of "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes"

The dedication reads: "For Laura, who remembered Sadako"

To which I've added:

"And for everyone else who remembers, or is remembered."

Tomorrow I will give it to a Jewish library I know

And return another book, one I borrowed long ago,

"Faithful Rebels." Sorry that I kept it for so long,

Memory does not always serve me. I was wrong,

But my ways I'm trying to mend.

It was lost in storage for some time.

Please forgive me.

I remembered where to send it

When Hashem began to teach me how to rhyme.

--- K Markham McCarty, September 21, 2006. I was unable to post this final draft yesterday, so I changed the title to look forward to more Peace Days in the future. The tomorrow mentioned at the end is actually coming today -- as soon as I post this I'm riding my bike to the library to deliver the aforementioned books. The usual provisions about reprints for educational and peace-related work apply; give credit where credit is due. Thanks to Bette Midler (or her songwriter) for the "from a distance" phrase, and to sum it all up, I'll use Walt Kelly's immortal phrase: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."