Illustration by Paola Bilancieri.
The cost of war is not born by the world
Leaders who are safely ensconced in their offices
With beautiful views, a world unseen.
The cost of war is the broken
Geometry of childhood
The millions of starving and sick children
And those injured and permanently scarred.
The cost of war is paid
By those children who will never know their father
And by those whose hearts will break when
They see him, unable to walk or see.
By women who will never again experience
their husband’s loving touch.
By those wives whose guilt will pursue them
When they decide to bring another man in their lives and
By those valiant women soldiers whose bodies have paid a heavy price
With their injuries.
By those women whose traumatized husbands will increase
Their violence against them.
By pregnant women who will suffer
increased chances of stillbirth after being abused.
By countless broken, torn families
And by common people who watch, hopelessly,
the brutal loss of lives
while world leaders, merciless and cruel,
disregard the world’s clamor for peace
and continue to promote
the deadly march of the world armies.
The post The Cost of War appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Cesar Chelala.