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The Militarization of America (Free verse) by Quarton
America is becoming
an immense arsenal,
inside of which
there will be nothing.
Not a people but an emptiness,
an arsenal of nothingness.
While our real strengths,
compassion and equality,
defer to paranoia--
misguided perceptions
of the perceived panacea
that is militarization.
If we continue a policy
of guns before butter,
neglecting the needy
and oppressed in our society;
perhaps in the vast repository
of bombs,
deep in the subterranean
chambers of our missile fields,
someone
in that cavernous silence
will remember a poem
and recite it.
Maybe a young soldier
will hum a tune of tolerance
and others will join in--
a chorus of hope and equality
echoing ever louder,
until it becomes a crescendo
of love and compassion--
in time to prevent the carnage
as the doomsday clock
ticks closer to chaos.
When billowing mushrooms
from spent warheads transform
existence to emptiness--
where oblivion resides.
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