As a Russian poet was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison for reading his anti-war poetry, Haverhill native and poet Raymond F. Comeau brings to WHAV his latest poem discussing “Collateral Damage” during the current wars.
Comeau, a former president of the Trustees of the John Greenleaf Whittier Homestead, says his latest work is “written in the spirit of the fighting JGW and William Blake, it expresses outrage and disgust with the idea and practice of collateral damage, and shame that we humans can be involved.”
Collateral Damage
Imagine a boy
Running blindly through rubble
His cranium a bloody mess
Or a mother
Alone against a wall
Who suckles her child
As missiles zero in
And imagine they’re multiplied
Like cancer cells out of control
And disposed of in batches
Like dead cows
Casually in sly official words
Good God we slaughter innocents
As easily as we shave
Even with empathy on our sleeves
And lessons of history in our minds
And in our hearts religions galore
That teach us love
Satan himself will glorify this
© Raymond Comeau 2023