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.