Empire, Why Will You?

Will you invade again, Empire?

To show your Empire license

hasn't expired? Send troops,

send planes and drones with

bombs, ready the rockets

and missiles, prepare to unleash

empirical Hell? Again? 

We know the arguments against.

The moral, the political,

and the historical. Today

I'm thinking of the emotional. 

Dead children. Dead everyone.

Terrorized families. Blasted homes.

No place to go, no water

to drink, no hope, no food. 

And the practical. When you

can trade for and buy

treasure, when your people

have plenty, when you can

defend yourself a hundred

times over, when your people

are sick of war and just

want to live and work and

love, when your power's

already super, why perform this

depraved stupidity again?

Is it out of some sick habit?

Some cultural addiction?

To what end? I guess if I have

to task the question, then

I'm not empire material. 

Although I live in one of several.

hans ostrom 2021