The same game
of war and
bleak execution
is played out
across another
shattered landscape
despite all
rituals made to the Æsir
of painful assurances
and promises of partisan faith
an offering
to their altar
of innocence and innocents
the lives of those least capable
of resisting fate

Each time
they hope for reprieve
knowing full well
there will be none
for mercy is not
part of the pact
or promise offered
by these self-named deities
as they move pawns
and bishops
even presidents
across a bombed-out chessboard
filled with nothing
but their whims
and a childlike fancy
to see bloodied pieces
fall at their
command

Would that we
some day
have the
bravery
for a belief
in some
gods greater
than
our own
kind.