War today is the little curly-haired girl in the hospital in Agros, Greece, whimpering in the dark all night because her right arm hangs in blackened tatters and she wants her mother, who is dead.
War today is that man lying on the sidewalk with his guts sticking out of his belly, and a hole through his skull, and both hands blown off, screaming because he can't reach into his pocket to get a drachma to buy aspirin tablets to stop the funny feeling inside his head.
War today is the line of dead bodies in the doorways of little shops in Belgrade's terrazia, killed when they rushed out to see what that crazy noise in the sky meant.
War today is that Serbian girl you promised to get out of Yugoslavia before the Germans or Italians caught her, and then didn't. War is what you think when you say "God-damned coward" to yourself and wonder what the Germans or Italians did to her when they found your name in her passport.
War today is thousands of Australian soldiers lying on the deck of a boat taking them out of the hell of Greece and Crete, reading books like 'Propaganda for War' and trying to figure out what it's all about.
Foreward; From The Land of Silent People
-Robert St. John
No comments:
Post a Comment