Outside Looking In

I'm outside looking in

and I'm staring in bewilderment 

at an historical situation 

a political situation

which now has become a military situation 

an argument

a disagreement about rights 

a conflict of opinions 

over lands

and ownership of lands

about the rights - or not

to be on those lands

different factions

different peoples

about their faiths and beliefs 

their opinions - differing opinions

I see people that aren't listening to the words that many are saying

to the advice that is being given

from allies - those who support and supply them

to the mothers who are begging

to the men who are fighting

to children who are dying

to the politicians who are negotiating  

across borders

across contested borders

to those who launch the missiles

their supporters supplied

into lands they call their own

to kill 

to change minds

to change history 

to displace 

people they disagree with

to kill their leaders 

to cut off the heads of the groups they despise 

sat in lands that they believe are theirs

and with fingers on triggers 

and with fingers in ears

some minds set only on what has gone before

making peace a thin vaneer

as fragile as porcelain

these factions will maintain their ground

what little ground they have

but ground they will fight over

in order to keep

for although an international agreement was signed

it was one which not all could agree to

and one which many still disagree over

an agreement which stamped the borders we see now

onto the most unstable part of the world 

an arrangement not all the aggrieved partners took as gospel 

an agreement which saw people displaced from homes

political factions

and locations

neatly set-up 

on top of historical peoples

whose armed factions are prepared to fight to the last man standing 

over their right to be

to be where they believe in

to be where they believe their right is

and where they are prepared to kill 

to keep

kill or be killed

the ideologies are engrained over millennia 

in which all believe 

they are right

but as days pass

over the days I've written this piece

I've observed - and had to write more

to rewrite

for

things have got worse

a change

not for the better

not towards an end - a peaceful end

but more war...

Will this ever end?

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