Alex Arnot

The Price of War (It Makes Me Rich)

In anticipation the battalion awaits.

Eyes concealing scarlet, eager to spread.

Forever engaged in a war of attrition.

All white doves lie in crimson red.

 

Disagreement and union,

A dichotomy too perfect not to incite war.

I salivate, hunger and lust to devour

With conniving glee, fire shots from afar.

 

Mediocrity the trigger and dissension the bullet.

With ferocity unfettered attack and demean!

Diversion inoffensive to any with aspiration

Become towering tributes to the obscene.

 

Oh how the self righteous give new monsters life,

So too do the ignorant take up their swords.

The bliss wherein echos say little to nothing

Bombarded by volleys of seething words.

 

Perpetually locked in verbal conflict.

Diligence averted as I slither in.

Fighting to control this escapist paradise

While behind the curtain I revel in sin.

 

Intellectuals not tempered by empathy and wisdom

Surrender themselves to acceptable gains,

A fraction of this world I keep on a string.

Like Marx and Watson they accept their chains.

 

All who sit upon the fence,

Asking questions, learning more,

Who stray too close to my golden shroud,

Shall be engulfed by rabid hordes.

 

The enemy of my enemy

Keeps them at bay as I take control.

The resolve of all weakens as mine grows strong.

The world inside my hands I hold.