Sonnet #99

The ones who send to war declare the need to win
And how it great outweighs the need for peace
Projecting strength, protecting home, preservation
of the way we choose to live. The drums of war wreath
the tombstones of the honored dead. Let me not
betray the beauty of their sacrifice, our martyred heroes
When I criticize the machine that had lives bought:

To what purpose were they killed? Our children go
to kill some other children, and we both shout infidel
always hated -- Why go to war? What use to throw
the grenade to shout our wants ahead with shrapnel
And we have to honor heroes to pretend we didn't know
The pointlessness of buried boys, crashed planes, red seas
All paid because we didn't have any better ideas