Tuesday, December 15, 2015



Pieter Bruegel the Elder The Massacre of the Innocents 1565



Wards of War   Mary Stromer Hanson 2015
                       
Fractured children lie bandaged
on cribs of cruel revenge.
Their rag doll joints asunder
painted eyes pleading, “Why must we
bear the battles of others?”

Broken children with limbs
unhinged in casts of plaster.
Suspended by tortured weights
too heavy for fragile frames
mere babes too young to hate.

Why must the children suffer
for sins sown by the fathers?
The damage was collateral
coldly reported of cowards
who strap on death and kill.

Another childhood stolen
burned images on the inner eye
ratchets the hate still higher.
Violence has been worshipped.
Vengeance has been served,

Innocents stolen again by
the edge of Caesar’s sword
since the time of forever.
Pray please bend these hearts
to cease blind hatred of the other.