Totalled
From all the deadly calculus of war,
With mounting tolls that are so horrific
They become just a gruesome statistic,
Let this accounting be for one, not more.
Focus on a single obscenity,
What should be an unimaginable fact,
A child killed through a deliberate act
In vain pursuit of national liberty.
When pulling the trigger is justified
As self-defence, which partial god or creed
Can be invoked to excuse such a deed,
By laying the guilt on the other side?
The gains of war cannot be reconciled
With loss of a man, a woman, a child.
D. A.