copyright Michael King
20th Century Crusaders
The eastwind numbs the brain and reason dies.
No trumpets herald this ‘dawn of dying’.
Where glory rode by the bold Knight’s side
hear now the sounds of a mother crying.
Proud banners carried gallantly into battle,
where honour rode white stallion mounted,
now ‘Jackboots’ crush a baby's rattle.
Death’s toll like a cricket score is counted.
No glory now in the army's path,
but the pain of children, bellies swollen.
Broken bodies lie spewing life.
War, man's self-
No more ‘the brave men gone to the wars’,
fighting in the name of God.
Drinking in a strange land’s whores.
Now children's hearts grind in the sod.
Although I wrote this at the time the Warsaw Pact countries led by the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia to end what became known as the Prague Spring, it could apply equally to many other conflicts.
“You can crush the flowers but you can’t stop the spring”
Alexander Dubcek, First Secretary of the Communist Party. Czechoslovakia
5th January 1968 -