Linda Stitt - War Zone

We go blindly into battle,
unable to see
that our own animosity
is the adversary.

If we lay waste the cities of our foe
and bomb their dwellings into dust,
we will not make our homes invulnerable.
Their misery will be our misery.

And when we teach our children hatred,
inculcate them with ruthlessness,
what will this accomplish?
We shall have poisoned our own seed.

And when we imprison and torture
and heap indignities upon our captives,
can we not see
it is our own souls we brutalize?

And if we win a victory
and stride across the corpses of our enemies,
we will not have conquered ourselves.

And if we make blood sacrifice to our god,
what will that avail us?
Only a deity as wrathful as ourselves,
only unliberated prophets.

Enmity fosters enmity.
If we have not defeated ill will,
we have won nothing.

Only the realization of our oneness
is the peace beyond the poles of separation.
Only love is the victory.

Linda Stitt

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/war-zone/