We go blindly into battle, <br />unable to see <br />that our own animosity <br />is the adversary. <br /> <br />If we lay waste the cities of our foe <br />and bomb their dwellings into dust, <br />we will not make our homes invulnerable. <br />Their misery will be our misery. <br /> <br />And when we teach our children hatred, <br />inculcate them with ruthlessness, <br />what will this accomplish? <br />We shall have poisoned our own seed. <br /> <br />And when we imprison and torture <br />and heap indignities upon our captives, <br />can we not see <br />it is our own souls we brutalize? <br /> <br />And if we win a victory <br />and stride across the corpses of our enemies, <br />we will not have conquered ourselves. <br /> <br />And if we make blood sacrifice to our god, <br />what will that avail us? <br />Only a deity as wrathful as ourselves, <br />only unliberated prophets. <br /> <br />Enmity fosters enmity. <br />If we have not defeated ill will, <br />we have won nothing. <br /> <br />Only the realization of our oneness <br />is the peace beyond the poles of separation. <br />Only love is the victory.<br /><br />Linda Stitt<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/war-zone/
