Padraic Neary - Armless

Where twin rivers form natures moat,
man first stood still and parked his goat,
he tilled the soil, and built and wrote,
no longer farmless.

He prospered, traded, opened shop,
and black muck oozing to the top,
was cursed for ruining half his crop,
but it’s surely ‘armless.

Six thousand years he’s been at work,
for Arab, English, Greek and Turk,
through each generation, dangers lurk,
no ruler is ‘armless.

Then Saddam came and took his turn,
with western aid made oil wells churn,
with western arms made Iran burn,
‘e’s certainly not ‘armless.

But then, one day he sealed his fate,
when overreaching, snatched Kuwait,
became the free world’s one to hate,
we’ll make ‘im ‘armless.

All nations led by George the first,
consigned his guns to desert rust,
but failed to curb his power lust,
‘e’s still not ‘armless.

For twelve long years, all aid denied,
while fathers raged and mothers cried,
frail bodies whimpered, withered, died;
so small and ‘armless.

All nations then could not agree,
should force be used to set them free?
or wait till arms inspectors see,
if Saddam was ‘armless?

George and Tony said we must,
blast the tyrant’s rule to dust,
and because we could, our cause was just,
we’ll make ‘im ‘armless.

Smart bombs fell from overhead,
dismembered bodies twitched and bled,
and friendly fire killed, just as dead,
nothing is ‘armless.

An orphaned waif bleeds on the sand,
siblings dead, can’t understand,
he’ll never grasp kind freedom’s hand,
this kid is really armless.

Padraic Neary

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/armless/