Photo: A monument in Zagreb that I call Music and Mayhem, as it illustrates the poem of that name.
Peacekeeper’s Lament
Were you there when the flames scorched the heavens
And the screams of mortally wounded curdled blood
Did the crashing of the glass upon the gravel
Halt you heart and tear the tears from your eyes
Were you there when your neighbours fled in terror
And drunk madmen threw grenades into their house
And the thump-thump of mortars on the roadway
Was the drumbeat of the devil’s deadly march
Were you there with machine-guns’ hateful chortle
small children stumbling by in pools of blood
Did the rumble of the tank across the cobbles
Make futile any hope of future life
Were you there when the sputtering hot cannon
Spewed the altar of the church across the nave
Did the wailing hail of rockets from the hillside
Turn the hospital into a gruesome morgue
Were you there when the darkness claimed the ruins
And the savagery lurched on to victims new
Did you crawl from the ruins of your history
Swearing you would not forgive, forget
Did you then dig up your rifles and their ammo
And swear to carry on the fight
Were you happy when you first took real revenge
And tore apart his face with three quick shots
Did you tremble when they strapped your arms behind you
And tied you legs together with rough chain
Were you shocked when the hatchet cracked your cheekbone
And the bullets splashed your heart against your spine
Have your children pledged to carry on your fight
Devoting all their youth to settling scores
Will they too foster hate and ethnic chaos
To guarantee more years of human hell
If so, I can not help you find a peace
Your goals too locked in fire and blood and death
Until, some day, this mandate’s laid to rest
We’re helpless to arrest your tragic waste.
Zagreb, Croatia