Hit us with your nuclear fist,
Firepower we cannot resist,
Raising banners of war with prodigious force,
Raping red earth raw in fiery jaws,
Erasing all memory until we are no more,
Hit us with your nuclear fist,
Hit us until we no longer exist.
We first entered the arms race as simple Neanderthals,
Not much more than four-limbed tool-using mammals,
Fighting each other with stones and sticks,
Physical force exposing the weak,
The future seemingly primitive and bleak.
Over time we developed,
Tools became forged as we harnessed fire,
Caves became villages as we built higher,
From savage to civilisation,
It was imagination that fueled our progression,
Heads held high towards the sky,
Always questioning, why?
This haunted our waking hours and sleeping dreams,
Tearing the fabric of a race down its seams,
Separating us forever by unprecedented extremes,
Religion becoming the focus of our thinking minds,
Explaining what our conditioned senses could not define,
A meaning beyond life in front of our eyes.
As always differing beliefs lead to misunderstanding,
Misunderstanding to argument,
Argument to violence,
Violence turning to genocide as swords replaced sticks,
Faith honed blades to chop infidels to bits,
To hunt them down and thr`ow them in a pit,
Victims of a self-righteous crusade,
Holy anger perpetrating the brave,
Or forcefully converting those too afraid.
Religion however brought more than just conflict,
In its wake came morals and ethics,
Right and wrong became human principles,
A bad and good way to treat other people,
Our conscience set us apart,
Enabling us to act with compassion and heart,
With love.
Unfortunately not all progressed as morally astute,
Many a conscience could not encage the brute,
And so as we technologically advanced,
So did war become an art,
A game played by the powerful to help time pass,
Inventing heavier weaponry, cannon fodder,
Shrapnel shuriken and explosive triggers,
More devastation with ranges bigger.
Prelude,
World fought in mud filthy trenches,
Seeking to overcome the enemy with abrasion,
Whittling away at all nations,
Regressing back to survival of the fittest,
Slaughtering our young with the war of attrition,
Laying the bloody foundations of the events to come,
A prequal to destruction the only legacy of world war one.
And so we fought with growing strength in the air,
We fought on the beach,
We dropped bombs on the city until it looked bleached,
Mowing each other down by the million,
Putrid the state of human condition,
Blood bled for another’s ambition,
Twisted, deluded assassination,
Brothers, mothers, fathers and children,
One and for all their memories died with them,
Pointless scapegoats for an evil vision.
It ended with a nuclear race,
Both sides hot on the chase,
Hiroshima dawning with death’s embrace,
A mushroom cloud tinged with a poisonous taste,
Polluting a generation with sickness and waste,
The final disgrace.
We seemed to have evolved since then,
Once old enemies becoming fast friends,
Time worn dogma’s and bruises on the mend,
Feuds and grudges discarded as pretense,
We seemed to have grown as human beings,
More adept at actually feeling,
Finally aiming to morally correct
Darkness in the past we all regret,
Acknowledging others with the first grain of respect,
It seemed as though mortal combat may finally end,
Must we always forget past lessons?
Are we just hurtling towards fulfilling twenty-twelve,
Playing God by crafting our own hell.
Well?
First think of this before you raise your nuclear fist,
It’s a firepower we cannot resist,
Raising banners of war with prodigious force,
Raping red earth raw in fiery jaws,
Think carefully before you raise your nuclear fist,
Think carefully, or we’ll cease to exist.
