.

Home Run

Oh my God the play we made,
And, really quite efficiently.
We had two billion pawns we’d played,
Lost sixty million… two or three.
It’s almost none, percentage wise.
Well worth the effort—gains obscene!
And Post-war, what a nice surprise,
These small wars keep us in the green.
And now it’s time to grab the prize.
We’ve done the work, we’ve stoked the hate,
We’ve fed eight billion souls on lies—
A billion dead may satiate
Our blood and power and money lust.
Sing the anthem. Throw the pitch,
Hit the bomb, it’s boom or bust.
Play the game. We’ll all be rich.

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two billion: In 1938, the year before World War II started, the world population was approximately two billion.
Bomb: slang for a home run in baseball.

.

.

Mike Bryant is a poet and retired plumber living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

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18 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Great to see one of your well-wrought poems, this one with a sardonic bent encompassing what we used to call the military-industrial complex. Present day politicians have taken it to a new level of corruption and inappropriate policies, though, which I think you have in mind.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Thanks, Roy. I have a feeling that Brian has it right. I believe that what Ike called the “military/industrial complex” really believe they are saving the world from recession/depression.
      I believe that this earth provides so much wealth that, with the proper government, everyone could be wealthy.
      I think that’s why Jesus taught us all The Lord’s Prayer.

      Reply
  2. Joseph S. Salemi

    Since the British, the French, and the Americans have all idiotically decided to allow Ukraine to use its Western-supplied long-range weapons to attack targets inside Russia, you may be right. It’s exactly the kind of brainless provocation that warmongering neocons and globalists would pull off.

    The Russians have said that if this happens, they will consider themselves at war with the suppliers of those long-range weapons, especially since the weapon-systems will be manned and guided by British, French, and American teams (the Ukrainians are largely incompetent in such specialized equipment).

    2024 could very well be 1914.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Thanks Joe. I agree that 2024 could be 1914… or even Armageddon.
      If that happens there will be one more army involved.

      Reply
  3. Brian A. Yapko

    Thank you for the intriguing poem, Mike. I’m not great at sports so I’m not sure if I fully grasp the significance of the baseball metaphor beyond the idea that the bad guys have come up with a money-making scheme so succesful that it’s a grand slam. Did I get that right?

    There will always be incredible profits in the waging of war for those who stoke its flames, for those who act as profiteers and, I’m sure, for countless others. It’s ghoulish but war keeps the factories humming. This is one of the reasons that militarizing in the 1930s mitigated and ultimately ended the Great Depression. The military-industrial complex has every incentive to see conflicts never end. It’s analagous to the pharmaceutical companies ensuring that no diseases actually get eradicated — otherwise we’d stop needing their products. It’s all very cynical and invests heavily in the idea that Mankind cannot and should not ever eradicate war and disease. It’s so depressing.

    Reply
  4. Mike Bryant

    Thanks Brian. Nothing special about the baseball thing, except to point out that this is just another game… another business opportunity to those who are engaged in this business.
    It is depressing that the almighty dollar trumps morals, health, happiness, truth, beauty and even rhyme and rhythm.
    Our Earth will bloom… whether it’s after the big boom or not we’ll just have to wait and see. 🙂

    Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    Mike, one billion may not be enough. I read (a little more than 10 years ago, I think) a calculation of one and a quarter billion already dead in all the wars and revolutions fought for the cause of liberty. This would have begun with the deification of liberty in the 17th century, so it has taken a while, but the total cost is high. Different perspective than your concern with those who profit from conflict, but those are always around to facilitate battle, no matter its foreground cause. And of course in our country’s conflicts, liberty (for someone) is always among the reasons justifying a declaration of war. Therefore your taking the national sport as principal motif in your poem works quite well.

    Reply
  6. Mike Bryant

    Thanks, Margaret. You’re probably right that a billion isn’t enough. I could have used any number up to six, I just figured one would be shocking enough, but I might change it.
    As for the deification of Liberty, I’m pretty sure that Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
    The fat cats will always find a reason for war… it is just too damned profitable.

    Reply
  7. C.B. Anderson

    There is only one disease, and there is only one war. The former is to be overtaken by woke leftism; the latter is the one against the diabolical forces of nihilism and industrial-grade social degradation.

    Reply
  8. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Mike, you rock my world and inspire me with your words. Thank you!

    Reply
  9. Adam Wasem

    I always appreciate your clarity of focus and understanding of the big picture, Mike. Reading your stuff, I always feel like you’re one of the few who’s shaken off the blindfold and can see the entire elephant, politically speaking, as opposed to the multitudes bickering over trumped-up trivialities while the establishment marches us all to our doom.

    I can feel your frustration in the stridence of your characterization, too; when it seems like no one else can see the cliff ahead, or worse, that they’re just ignoring it, it’s so hard not to start shouting through the bullhorn. Myself, I think the establishment’s psychopathy is couched in much more “reasonable,” anodyne terms and behaviors–I forgot who talked about “the banality of evil,” but that’s my sense of it, which is what, in a way, makes it even more horrifying. Nevertheless, I greatly appreciate your pursuit of what virtually no one else seems to have the courage to tackle. Salut!

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Thanks, Adam. I agree about the banality of evil. There is absolutely nothing remarkable about evil. Evil becomes a lifestyle for those who made that first step into it. The most clever of those who embrace it can enjoy the wealth and privileges that go along with the sly acceptance and occasional “holier than thou” defense of the ongoing evil and monetary support of its many manifestations.
      And why not? They are doing just fine for now…

      Reply
  10. Adam Sedia

    Is this was a delight to read, laden with Americanisms, that hearken back to the postwar era, and at the same time a profound and insightful critique of the American Empire and its origins.

    Dare I say it is a perspective from someone with their feet firmly planted on the ground, who knows what honest work is, instead of a career academic or establishment creature quick to excuse the vices of those who fund them.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Thanks, Adam. It’s interesting to think that my work might have given me insight into the workings of this world.

      Upton Sinclair said, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”
      And if your salary can keep you from the truth, how much more all the perks of pushing the falsehoods?

      Not many have had an epiphany like Paul’s.
      We must work out those truths in our quiet hours.

      Thank God for his new covenant with each of us, individually.

      Reply
  11. Frank Rable

    Totally on target. An estimated eighty five million men, women, and children perished in World War II. This didn’t scare humanity for long though. For a while it was mutually assured destruction, but that seems to be fading as people forget. The United Nations was founded on optimism, but it lost its way. And there will always be a leader who can’t bear it, who can’t sleep at night, because there is a patch of someone else’s land or a people not under his control.
    Mike, a good job reminding us that for some, war is only a game and means to an end.

    Reply

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