By
JOSEPH VELLA
HOMO SAPIENS
What is man if not an accident of creation
A link in a chain of destined events
A tragic actor on the stage of deception
From birth to death appeasing human flattery.
A soul unto himself he conveniently created
A self proclamation for eternal life
No longer the fear of ash to ash
Everlasting divinity in paradise gained.
The genius of man a miracle of sorts
A caring God invented in his image and likeness
Virtues not vice noble attributes declared
Self delusion refined into perfection.
For his creator a favored relationship he declares
A first amongst equals in an infinite universe
In paramount disregard to the laws of nature
Where man and ape are but close kin.
With arrogance born and a myth of supremacy
Disdainful of lesser forms of life
Conceding no ground to mortality
He reigns supreme over a fool's paradise.
Of flesh and blood Homo Sapiens is made
Fragile, insecure, beneath his armor
Victim of division by race and creed
Within himself his worst enemy he encounters.
Not black nor white but gray his environment
Virtue and vice in complimentary fashion entwine
A creature, an emblem of contradiction
Unsure of his place in the sun.
Marvelous indeed are his accomplishments
Products of an inquiring mind
The domain of space next to conquer
On the verge of discovery of the cosmos.
What great deeds are indeed possible
From a weakling of such strength
Perhaps the day is dawning
When notion and reality are not betrayed.
RAVAGES OF WAR
(Dedicated to Hoan, my beloved brother-in-law,
victim of war in Vietnam.)
Void of compassion, license to wholesale murder
Merciless revenge, thicker than blood of kin
Brother against brother, in senseless slaughter
Planned fratricide without an emergent victor.
For love of nation, right or wrong
In heedless cadence to the march of death
Legalized execution condoned by self-serving interests
Hideous acts too grotesque for rational reflection.
Innocent beings forced to turn gladiators
Trained to perform in an arena of self destruction
Slaves to a spectacle of political intrigues
With no gain to balance their exit into eternity.
The labor of love, sacrifices of a lifetime
All brought to a sudden irreversible end
Complete disintegration of intelligent beings
A legacy for yet another devastated family.
A curse on mankind bestowed upon its offspring
Disguised in national proclamations of hollowed origin
An immoral summons to bear arms in defense of "freedom"
So that vested interests may continue to thrive.
No nation, no race, no cause can justify killing
Not in defense of liberty or against an alien philosophy
War and death are much too final
For reconsideration of issues at conflict.
A ban to all arms, to all uniforms
In the name of sanity, and the survival of our species
A call for the union of man, in love and compassion
Without claim to geographical accidents of birth.
E-mail to: Joseph Vella
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