Numb by Nigel Byng

Numb by Nigel Byng

And so they rebuild
While the wounded are removed from the battle field
While the bodies lay entombed in the rubble
And while the children die and mothers grieve
They rebuild

Still they fall
Parachutes drop life saving aid and food
Bombs rain down like demon manna
Craters collect acid rain, the limbs of the fallen,
and like the cedars of Lebanon
They fall

Still they smile
Hidden handshakes, crocodile tears
All the while denying the right to coexist
The length of a man’s arm, the time it takes to exhale or inhale, the distance between life and death
Veneered grins say it’s okay

And so, the righteous cry
I stand with a FLAG, Free the FLAG,
pointless, empty slogans
use the shallow minded and weak, the indoctrinated and misinformed
A coward dies a thousand times, while the brave die young
But the righteous cry on

We are a peculiar people –
An insatiable dragon feasting,
A satanic glutton, gorging on pain and suffering
Fattened by the greed of the few
Placated by the morally impious –
Whom the Gods wish to destroy

They curse with Madness
The right to annihilate
The right to eradicate
The right to insinuate
That when the world witnesses a Holocaust, it is in fact an act of kindness; divine retribution
Human life is of little value when compared to the price of waterfront property

Such hypocrisy
Such callous disregard
All it took for genocide to be palatable
Was the silence of elected leaders
Bankrolled by the murderous
Hasn’t that always been the case?
The ghosts of Nuremberg giggle

Pave the roads with skull and bones
Let the square and compass illuminate the night sky as the shining blue star falls and the stripes bleed a sanctimonious red
Sound the shofar
Hear the three lions roar, tamed by Elysium on her scarlet beast, riding down from her seven hills
And name the paved road after the dear leader
The Mother of Harlots

*Featured image by Dallas Reedy on Unsplash

Author’s Bio

Nigel Byng is a freelance writer, living in the USA. He recently contributed to Happiness in Unexpected Places; an anthology of stories compiled by authors and media professionals from across the globe. His writing can be found on Signs of the Times Australia; MasticadoresIndia, or on his personal blog http://www.hytsdaily.com where he displays his love of fiction and poetry under his pen name, Jerome Kenrick.