Anti-War Haiku Wall

A requiem

The wars over or has it just begun?
when will the widow -makers
the takers of sons
go home

leave half bombed-out shelters
sheltered tombs
where the armoured dead burn
                                      in the sun

silent witnesses lie smoking
in trenched mine fields
where no poppies will ever grow

the wars over or has it just begun ?

and those brothers' keepers
                                      having done
with those they've liberated
from their own
stalk victorious strut well-fed
                                              alone
while hungry children sell
                              themselves for a bun
when each home is rubble
the lootings done
when even ashes to dust have returned

when,when will they be gone?

the war's over or has it just begun ?

Angelee Deodhar (India)

what if I
don't want to fire missiles
at people
and watch them explode
like the Fourth of July

'support our troops'
yes, I'll pray and put flowers
on the graves
but don't expect me to dance
while others are falling

us 3 iraq 3000
scores of dead as if
it's a football game

iraqi line up will the real Saddam please surrender

Cindy

The Secure Selection of Colors

(orange alert a lighter shade of brown)

Tangerine is too red,
a reminder of the height of the Cold War
when apocalypse loomed
as large as a Texas ruby grapefruit
ninety miles from the coast.

Peach too pale
to hold the fear we feel;
beet too blood dark
to allow us to continue our lives
as if nothing had happened
for they've won if we don't
go on
as if nothing has happened.

Pumpkin is as American
as apple pie, home-grown,
honest,
if we ignore the nagging doubt
we squashed the pumpkin-eaters
and no longer can afford green peppers
let alone yellow.

(orange fades to gray)

Gary Blankenship (USA)

we are afraid
        the people reflected
                          and went to war

in the name of the Gods
   they go to war
the Gods look upon
   and frown

          War
   empty – hollow
  filled with blood

Gabriel Bakke (Norway)

Hidden, Less than Sand

"we welcome the bombs
we the walking dead*"

sightless

doctor
teacher
student
engineer

less than slave
goat
camel
less than poppies in the fields

burqa shrouds
stone coffins
forgotten

*Scripps Howard News 10-2-01

Gary Blankenship

Some General Semantics

Here are 10 days to go
and you found some old
dead unsmoking warhead
no smoke means no fire
What manner of a guest
will threaten the host
exposing their genital
regions while shopping
for their attic ghosts
without the unfriendly
cold area of adversity
spoiling the situation
Do I fear dead warhead
or the smoking warlord

C) 2003 Frank Anthony
Reprints with credit

one result, war;
the death of people
like you and i,
unheard,
unheeded,
unneeded,
discarded
like garbage
        in
   rice fields,
   disco clubs,
   jungles,
   deserts,
   churches,
   memories,
      obit articles
      read at night
          while
those who make war
      make love
    at our expense

Robert D. Wilson (USA)