What Sickness, What Madness

a poem

Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash

Listen to the author reading What Sickness, What Madness.

What Sickness, What Madness

When young soldiers kill people 
that they do not know or never look in the eye,
because they believe that they are fighting
against lesser beings and human animals;
when these young soldiers laugh and cheer
and chant and dance on live camera
as houses, hospitals, schools, mosques
are blown up, burnt down or bulldozed
and whole neighborhoods obliterated,
they are called patriots and heroes.
And should some of these young soldiers die
in a godforsaken place soaked with the blood
of women, children, unarmed men,
the elderly, the sick and helpless,  
they are honored for their sacrifice.

When men and women in high office wage
vengeful one-sided military campaigns
against defenseless civilians, and drive them,
like broken beasts, into displacement, destruction,
hopelessness, starvation, slaughter or exile
with no chance of return;
when from their seats of power these men and women
fund and fuel genocide and ethnic cleansing
because war saves jobs and keeps the economy going,
because industry profits secure election funding,
because they are defending freedom and democracy,
these people are called world leaders.

When Aaron Bushnell, a young American airman, 
self-immolates before the Israeli embassy in Washington,
because he no longer wants to be complicit in genocide;
when this young man cries "Free Palestine", 
his dying words, as his body bursts into flames,
he is called psychotic, mentally unstable,
unhinged, unbalanced, deranged.
And people wonder what sickness,
what madness, possessed him to do 
such a terrible thing.