Enough already with the killing, the lies, the deception,
The bombs, the coverage, the justifications,
The governments, the media, the terrorists,
And all those people too bored, too lost, too angry,
Certain that murder might still serve
A purpose.
Flags and settlements, domes and skyscrapers
Reaching for the heavens, flaunting riches
Before the vanquished, the unwilling builders,
Meaningless fortunes at the expense
Of those who have none.
Stones, swords, sophisticated weapons
And homemade bombs, to wound, kill, wipe out
And destroy, as much as they can,
Flaunting strength for all to acknowledge
Just who is in power.
All attacks are terrorism
All assassins are terrorists.
They create terror, do they not?
No need to carry out ballistics or search
For motives, murder is murder no matter
Who carries it out or why. Humanity as a whole
Guilty of charge.
Enough already with fooling ourselves,
Gullible ignorant creatures who still want
To believe in their own innocence, cheering
In patriotic faith when bombs kill, the ‘enemy’.
Hospital, schools, civilian casualties and kids,
“Oops! Just a mistake! It could have happened to anyone!”
Repeating to ourselves we did not mean to, whereas “they”
Do it on purpose. They are the only ones to blame.
It’s always “they”, it always has been,
But there are no mistakes when a hand is armed,
There is no room for error, yet error is all it is.
Murder is murder, no matter what.
Roman atrocities, Punic wars,
Massacre of Christians, Viking pillages,
Arab invasions, ancient beheadings,
Mongolian ravages, bloody purges.
Catholic witch hunts, holy crusades,
Barbaric conquests, Turkish slaughters,
French guillotines, European colonial massacres,
New world genocides, indigenous eradication.
Modern wars, air bombings,
Populations dying, minor side effects,
Nuclear bombs, Red Hunts,
Chilean women stuffed with rats.
The story is told for us to forget,
Dissociation from Hitler, he must have been mad,
Went a little too far, burning secret accords,
Palestinian territories promised to the Jews
In 1917, by Her Majesty the Queen, to Rothschild.
Stalin and Pol Pot on the other hand
Had the ‘decency’ to kill their own,
And for that they were rewarded,
Died old in the cosiness of their home.
Murder is murder, no matter what.
And yes, we are still a young evolving species
But we all know we won’t see the day
Things will get better, we will be wiser,
If we continue to act and react this way.
And no, to the fatalists who stubbornly replicate
“This is what human beings do!”
This is who we are and who we have been,
But we are much more and we can improve.
We can get better at living together,
As soon as we stop fooling ourselves,
Watching telly, so called ‘breaking news’,
Listening to words that only create distance,
While convincing ourselves that murder might still serve
A purpose.
Murder is murder, no matter what.
– To the Manchester Arena victims and to all those whose lives have been stolen away from them, anywhere around the globe, whoever their assassins –
[Featured painting: With Guns You Can Kill Terrorists, With Education You can Kill Terrorism by Atikur Abdul]