PROPHETS OF DEATH
Prophets of death rampaging
Across a blood-stained land,
Spreading death and mayhem
Across forests and desert sands.
No-one is immune to the evil
That these vipers gladly spread,
Nothing pleases them more
Than fields filled with the dead.
For money is their mistress
The only thing they care for,
Foul remunerations climb
When the death count soars.
Counting only dollars and cents
Never the cost in human lives,
Prophets of death are selling
Planes, and guns, and knives.
Let the innocent die in Hell
As long as their profits come,
Let blood fill streets and alleys
Yes, let the good die young.
The greenback is their only God
The only thing for which they lust,
While good men kill and be killed
Bleeding, dying, turning to dust.
Prophets of death are rejoicing
As millions of innocents die,
For nothing else really matters
As long as their profits fly high.
THE END
© Copyright 2022 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
About this poem
I remember the saddest day of my life, when I was nine or ten. When I learnt the most obscene thing I've ever heard. That private companies are allowed to make weapons of war for profit. Despite being unemotional as a rule, I cried out loud when I heard this. I still believe that if the UN passed a worldwide law that only governments could own factories making weapons of war, that war would virtually end. History is resplendent with examples of private companies giving millions of dollars worth of weapons to small nations, then grossly overcharging the big nations, to keep what should have been a short war going for years or even decades, so that they could grow fat on the profits of death!
Written on May 11, 2022
Submitted by philip0157 on May 14, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 54 sec read
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Quick analysis:
Scheme | AXXX XBCB XCXX XXAX XXXX XDXD AEXE XXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 939 |
Words | 180 |
Stanzas | 8 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3 |
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"PROPHETS OF DEATH" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/127566/prophets-of-death>.
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