by Douglas J. Lanzo
Copyright 2022
First published in Academy of the Heart and Mind (June 8, 2022)
She cries out to the Lord
from cellar every night
for safety from the shells
that cause her massive fright;
Her purity of heart
a widow in distress
is heard by God above
determined to redress:
the evils of this war,
the brutal acts of troops,
the shelling of her home,
the lawlessness of groups,
who terrorize her kids
in shelters marked to save
their innocence from death,
their precious lives from graves;
Although the course of war
is too hard to predict
the sovereign Lord is sure
to render His verdict,
condemning wanton acts
of malice mixed with spite,
avenging the lives lost
defending what is right;
The foolish sow their fate
in plundering the weak
destroying lives and things
with havoc that they wreak,
their names will never grace
the sacred Book of Life
their futures cursed to be
ones of torment and strife,
when God brings reckoning
in this and afterlife.