What price to pay
and in that who's winning?
the act of contrition
the pliancy of sinning

Peace by destruction
better be ready
hawk with an olive branch
dove with a machete

Pragmatic nightmare
swimming in doubt
Fragmented union
when it's in to be out

It's an effortless struggle
to believe in a lie
to buy a rented hatred
watch a stranger die

Best call it protection
and intensify the fear
else the end of your possessions
all that you hold dear

Fight for what is yours
or yours is what they'll take
a faceless foreign terror
a new enemy to make

Retreat into perversion
an effortless transition
wear a facade of divinity
never doubt the mission

Compassionate execution
smart bombs - just cause
misdirected jingoism
disregard the laws

Combatants all
no thought for tact
indiscernible
fiction or fact

Can it end
without all loss?
must we pay
this terrible cost?

Absolute judgment
is not ours for giving
life in all forms
is solely for living

Retreat if you must
fear nothing of shame
beneath all the lies
we are each the same

The end of this madness
is extinction at best
the ultimate failure
to the ultimate test


Copyright: Brian Pellerino 2007