Make Love and War

by Michael O'Leary

The last train is about to leave
The last train has left
The cradle of Western Civilization is under siege

The Euphrates burns, a river of flames
The Euphrates burns, set alight by
The twin towers of a double burning bush

The new manifestation of the West
The new manifestation of the West
Is engulfing and eating its own parents

USA, teenager of the world
USA, teenager without rest
With raging hormones of revenge

The last train is pulling out
The last train has pulled out
From My Lai, Lidice and Fallujah

It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed

I know a man who fought in Vietnam
I met a man who fought in Vietnam
Who witnessed the murder of women and children

He claims the Nazis were more honest
He says the SS were more honest
Than the Black Hawks of the neo-con men

It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed
It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed

My love comes to me
And baring her beautiful breasts
Before my loving gaze and soft caress
She gives me the gift only a young woman
Can bestow on an older man . . .
The strange healing, and holding up of a mirror,
The touch of the goddess . . .

And no matter how humble
His or her beginnings have been,
No more, no less, is their gift of love, of aroha
While tainted by temporal concerns
It cannot be lost, as the flow of life
Loosens itself from its strictures

It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed
It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed – or kiss me
Make love, make war, its all the same
And who will say, did you miss me?

Now the war is over and she is gone
The doors after perception open like the grave
The soldiers remind me of death
My young love reminds me of life

It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed
It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed – or kiss me
Make love, make war, its all the same
And who will say, did you miss me?

It’s the last train
(Did you miss me?)
It’s the last train
(Did you miss me?)
It’s the last train
(Did you miss me?)
It’s the last train
(Did you miss me?)

It doesn’t matter who’s killing ya
If you’re being killed

From: 
Michael O'Leary




Michael Oleary's picture

ABOUT THE POET ~
I am a poet, novelist, artist, and academic from Aotearoa New Zealand. I have had several books of poetry published including 'Toku Tinihanga: selected poems 1982 to 2002' - my latest collections were 'Paneta Street' 2008 and 'Livin' ina Aucklan' in 2010. At present I am working on a project called 'Fences Fall' which is a collaboration with myself and several musicians to produce a CD of songs based on my poems.


Last updated August 08, 2011