The General Rode Away
A Poem By Mike Shaner
The General
Mike Shaner
He marched armies
into war
He saw the battlefields
Where a list of casualties
Totaled up the score
Now the world is changing
And new truths reveal old lies
His eyes fixed on a ground washed with blood
And tears from orphaned mother's eyes
He thought aloud
and mumbled to himself
"There is a truth in reason
there is a reason war is hell
A nation in constant war
Cannot be good"
As he looked at the rubble that lay
Where brilliant mansions proudly stood
but the bombs exploded and babies died
as a nation brimmed with pride
The day the general rode away
The paper dollar cannot afford
the price of gasoline or milk by the gallon
And the senator stood in Arizona
Preaching exceptionalism and a new challenge
And the general stared
Solemn at the gunfire rain
And wondered if his people
were just too damned blind to change
Back home the world seemed small
And the cracks were tearing the walls
As the police drove tanks on urban battlefields
And Congress was busy passing laws
but the bombs exploded and babies died
as a nation brimmed with pride
The day the General rode away
The child that stood
with helpless hands raised
Stinging from the powder
of a badge burning in his face
Another orphaned mother crying
At a dream and a future gone
And a sad poet wonders
when freedom lost her home
He stares out an empire
Crumbling to itself
"There's a truth in reason
there is a reason war is hell"
He cries beside an alter
At the death of a dissident
He shed himself of his halter
The day the poet picked up his pen
And a nations foolish pride
was lost to shame as it died
The day the general rode away



Excellent. An old navy vet and I have an appointment at the grave of Gen. Smedley Butler. We are doomed, of course. It's past time to start rebuilding and looking toward what we might do with what comes next. {NB, did you mean "altar"?} Keep the faith.