Before You Declare War

If you are the decision maker

Holding the ultimate power

Before you declare war

Think twice or more

Imagine how the sky darkens

By dense-darting bullets and bombs

Visualize how blood and flesh spatter

All over the battlefield

Picture your son’s or brother’s face

On one of the soldier’s in the bloodshed

Listen to the air raid siren shrieking

People running and screaming

Bullets whooshing

Bombs blasting

The wounded moaning and groaning

Feel the depth of grief a mother bears

When her son or daughter sacrificed

The tremors from anguish of a child

Whose father will never return from war

And if all the alternatives exhausted

The war must be declared

Try to end it swiftly

Protraction of the battle

Traps people in endless turmoil

Tears the land beyond repair

History will have the final say

Your decision is justified or not

By Shih-Fang Wang

From: United States