All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Last weekend, I watched the movie All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), and I was inspired (in a unpleasant way) to write a poem. Usually I would experience joy of writing while conceiving and composing a poem, but I took no pleasure out of writing this piece.

 

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

 

Among the seven continents,

how many have a blue sky,

free from plumes of war,

for white pigeons to fly?

 

It's not the case

on the western front

where bombing and shelling

are never ending.

 

The killers are like Devil Satan,

slaughtering without mercy,

and like bad doves who occupy

magpies' nests without courtesy.

 

The crimes they committed

are outrageous and the worst.

Denouncing them is what

one can do the least.

 

To witness dead bodies

pile up in a mass grave,

one can't really stay calm,

and needs to be brave.

 

All quiet on the eastern front,

at least so far.

Pray it stays that way,

and know how fortunate we are.

 

Can Lin Mo, Eirene of China,

eliminate a generations' worry,

difficult, not impossible,

avert a catastrophe?

 

 【七律】東線無戰事

 

 

鴿白天青飛幾洲？硝煙西線已難休。

屠夫似鬼名仨旦，惡鳥霸巢號拙鳩。

怒見黑魔千古罪，忍堆白骨萬人丘。

東方應禱無峰火，林默怎消數代憂？

 

(*) 仨旦，即Satan，通常譯作撒旦，基督教裏的魔鬼。

(*) 拙鳩，即鳲鳩，一種布穀鳥，性拙不善築巢，常占喜鵲的巢自用，有成語雀巢鳩占。

(*) 林默，媽祖的名字，中國的和平女神，對應於希臘神話中的和平女神厄瑞涅(Eirene)。

 

(© September 21, 2023, godog)