All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Last weekend, I watched the movie All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), and I was inspired (in a unpleasant way) to write a poem. Usually I would experience joy of writing while conceiving and composing a poem, but I took no pleasure out of writing this piece.

 

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

 

Among the seven continents,

how many have a blue sky,

free from plumes of war,

for white pigeons to fly?

 

It's not the case

on the western front

where bombing and shelling

are never ending.

 

The killers are like Devil Satan,

slaughtering without mercy,

and like bad doves who occupy

magpies' nests without courtesy.

 

The crimes they committed

are outrageous and the worst.

Denouncing them is what

one can do the least.

 

To witness dead bodies

pile up in a mass grave,

one can't really stay calm,

and needs to be brave.

 

All quiet on the eastern front,

at least so far.

Pray it stays that way,

and know how fortunate we are.

 

Can Lin Mo, Eirene of China,

eliminate a generations' worry,

difficult, not impossible,

avert a catastrophe?

 

 【七律】东线无战事

 

 

鸽白天青飞几洲？硝烟西线已难休。

屠夫似鬼名仨旦，恶鸟霸巢号拙鸠。

怒见黑魔千古罪，忍堆白骨万人丘。

东方应祷无峰火，林默怎消数代忧？

 

(*) 仨旦，即Satan，通常译作撒旦，基督教里的魔鬼。

(*) 拙鸠，即鸤鸠，一种布谷鸟，性拙不善筑巢，常占喜鹊的巢自用，有成语雀巢鸠占。

(*) 林默，妈祖的名字，中国的和平女神，对应于希腊神话中的和平女神厄瑞涅(Eirene)。

 

(© September 21, 2023, godog)