the cause it serves

by Roberto Lavidez

priest carries a pistol

responding to

systematic

state-sponsored

extermination

force with force

imminent desolation

and the end of time

surrendering to hatred

aspiring to power

exalting psychological

mindset to scrounge

for metal in rubbish

heaps overarching

drama and horror

imponderable sprawl

of febrile humanity

beneath the equation

of moral and rational

dark mutterings

of wounded soul

source of its own

affliction

utterly divorced

from anything

outside global

theater of war

bohemian radicals

beating the drum

about revolution

to gain sympathy

for the cause

sounding the trumpet

something must be done

altruism which often

cloak base motives

of unbearable kind

of idealism

reprehensible the

cause it serves

and its own

amorality

sparing havens

for war criminals

and champions

of atrocity who hide

spoils of victory

world overshadowed

by propaganda

is not the cold

and hostile

place it seemed

deus ex machina

with a little aid

from the gun

wielding priest

would win it

©robertolavidez2012