Iraq

Iraq

I'd like to write a poem about Iraq
but I can already hear the critics bark
" you got it wrong, you didn't have the facts "
when I only wanted the end to all attacks

not because I thought this army wrong
or that army right or ban the flag or song
I recognise each dilemma's throng but
there are incalculable wrongs in any bomb

they were no worse than other neighbours
who carry out the same dark military labours
they had rusting prisons where torture reigned
whilst we holiday in countries similarly veined

the convoluted spirographic mesh
of political religious economic duress
that binds or repels the nations to this war
affords us vague examination nothing more

I'd like to write a poem about Iraq
but I can't find my conscience in the dark.