‘War tells lies about war: That war keeps you safe. Or you would be dead by now.’

No country is safe in war

No country is safe in war.
There are no safe hands in war.
War is not a safe country.
Countries go to war to feel unsafe.
Countries risk safety in war.
Countries calculate risks in war.
War is incalculable.
War is a counting of dead bodies.
Blood is uncountable.
Countries risking war forget this.
When history forgets history, it goes to war.
War is a man with bad memory.
War has two hands. War needs two hands.
Two hands aren’t enough in war.
The hands of war are tied.
War is a balancing act. War balances insanity.
War is a death drive on land, air and sea.
War is an overdrive.
War is a mad automobile.
You need safe hands behind the wheel.
War is not safe in safe hands.
War is a risk others live.
Those who do not go to war live war.
There is no safety valve in war.
War is a switch left unattended.
War has a secret everyone knows but forgets:
War knows how to begin but not how to end.
War tells lies about war:
That war keeps you safe.
Or you would be dead by now.

War does not forget us

We forget war, it doesn’t forget us.
It arrives with its percussion of death,
a siren in the centre of the nightbell interrupts time
like an involuntary memory –
a story you heard from your grandmother comes alive
to claim you in bed. Old griefs return,
set your brow on fire. War returns like an unhappy
ghost of the enemy. Ghosts have no borders.
War stops you from thinking. You cannot think
if you breathe its hot air. Nothing
succeeds like war. It never disappoints the dead.
The nurse helping a victim protects herself with a mask.
People buy food, take out banknotes from ATMs,
and cross the border with their masks on. War is the new virus,
it plagues the soul, there are no vaccines against it.
The young will flee the country, the old will simply wait
on their chairs, as enemy tanks enter the city.
In war, the sky is no longer your own, nor the roads.
Your country is a home without walls. War tells you what the
world no longer is, what you no longer are. You are
a piece of news on the radio the world does not want to hear.