Warld

The American band Bad Wolves recently released the video for their goose-bump-inducing cover of “Zombie”, the mid-1990s anthem written by the late Dolores O’Riordan. I was just a kid when this song was first released, and The Cranberries rose to fame, but it resonated with my budding sense of the world, making a big impression on me.

The cover by Bad Wolves impressed me, as well. It was love at first listen.

It inspired me to publish an old poem of mine, one I wrote more than ten years ago. Here it is:

 

Warld

We, the emancipated people of the new millennium,
Who work to upgrade weapons, not to get rid of guns,
We condemn swords and axes, barbarous ancestors,
Spreading our modern values to biological bombs,
We patch a thousand definitions to justify a war,
And, when it comes to killing, we add a thousand more
On pillars of brilliant minds selling for pride
Evidence that life can’t be crushed without life.

So pick your god of choice or birth,
Wrap yourself in your flag and kiss the earth,
It is your privilege and your right
To step into webs of lies.
In sharp orders and blurred blessings,
You’re given a cause to validate endings.
Convinced that your country needs your sacrifice,
That it will tuck your children safe at night,
You spread further the fire,
And death starts in your heart.

The march covers their cries,
A medal in your son’s hand is the prize,
Praised the courage of the corpse,
Honor to mourning and loss.

The boy with a piece of metal in exchange for a dad,
Will open his hand again only to throw a grenade.

⭕

“Warld” is included in “Ashes of the Past”, a collection of poetry available in print and Kindle format.