Innocents Lost
By poetpj
62505 1222

the same fight for fifty some years
the combatants some age and fade
others fall at each others hand

and then there are those fallen upon
not allowed to merely sit and watch
but called into the battles
without being asked
only being told by
the bullets and bombs
the awful lie
that no innocence
or innocents exist

whether hebron or ramalleh
tel aviv, west or west Jerusalem
a death of the innocent
is still a death
whether words in Arabic
or words in Yiddish
spoken over the last remnant
of final innocence...

i would sometimes in anger say
let the warriors fight among themselves
once and for all the land
and let the hostages of indefinite conflict
walk away from the bloody fields
and buildings and hilltops
though not that will happen
but only when a bell tolls the peace
regardless of any war-brought result...

death of the innocent will end
only when the war itself dies
talked away
or just stopped by one side
and allowed to end by the other side.