A Personal Selection, November 2001

DRAGON'S FIRE

(excerpt from a poem)

by J. W. Hackett

So on and on goes the slaughter

between sons of the One

Self-same Spirit

All sacrificial victims

of chauvinist hubris:

those sovereign states of mind

we are urged to worship unto war

by thought-bound ideologues

who sanctify the notions

that each nation,

'race,' or faith

has of itself

Blind to how heaven's

all-embracing view

melds the myriad dream of life

into One,

zealots filled with damnation's

heady brews of hate

preach their litanies

of national pride

and religious prejudice

If only we could see earthfully

and realize the Eden

that NOW can be,

we would forswear

our bloody sanctification

of words and ideologies

and forsake forever

'the forbidden tree'

whose stolen fruits

we have maggotted

with every bias and bigotry

known to man