war......... in the longterm

am here in vietnam......
the ghost of war still here
will be for a long long time
inconceivable what we did
dioxin, agent orange
birth defects, cancer

i think of iraq and depleted uranium in our ordinance

yes, i hear, there are fewer wars, fewer dying in wars
but the long term effects of war, physically and psychologically cannot be measured

here are some words in the light of this:

Prayer for the Morning Headlines
    By Daniel Berrigan

    Mercifully grant peace in our days. Through your help may we be freed from present distress. Have mercy on women and children, homeless in foul weather, ranting like bees among gutted barns and stiles. Have mercy on those (like us) clinging one to another under fire. Have mercy on the dead, befouled, trodden like snow in hedges and thickets. Have mercy, dead man, whose grandiose gentle hope died on the wing, whose body stood like a tree between strike and fall, stood like a cripple on his wooden crutch. We cry: Halt! We cry: Password! Dishonored heart, remember and remind, the open sesame: from there to here, from innocence to us: Hiroshima Dresden Guernica Selma Sharpeville Coventry Dachau Vietnam Afghanistan Iraq. Into our history, pass! Seed hope. Flower peace.