In Praise of Factories

Your aircraft, your warship, hurls you at daffodil daylight

in your camouflage war machine, you cause a blight

staring at barren charcoal wastelands as they caress

your smooth pink brain, not yet hardwired for stress

I see a faintly glowing resemblance between us

you are molded in my shadowed image, a broken bridge’s truss

mutated to hunt in heaven, black-winged creatures will

in addition to factory-printed neon guns, be fated to kill

your submarine taking war into forested places it doesn’t belong

places that should be left pure and periwinkle-varnished

uncared for, in oak shambles, but no less holding strong

sphinxes of black quartz keep eternal gaze

their silent midnight vigil, bearing technology primed for darker days

prepared for fiery defenses that make a man tarnished

we stand our ground, fighting electric blue hellhounds

go, soldier, run! Dark storms cannot hold us down!

our damaged vessel makes a hasty retreat against grey seas

we’ve weathered worse, marched home smelling a bloodier breeze

we return fruitless, with nothing gold we gained

we must remember peace, not this bright red pain

we crave something pale and sweet, someone to make it right

hardwired for bloody battles, reluctantly made to fight