What is war?

what is war

what is the environment

when they blow up the city centre

is that an effect on the environment

do humans count as part of the environment

we are the storm

we are the tsunami

we are the flood

we are the wildfire

I have been to Hiroshima

it's a beautiful city

I have been to Warsaw

it's been rebuilt too

both to say

we will not be a historic ruin

like Bothwell Castle or Melrose Abbey

I have walked in places where the remnants of the Caledonian Forest remain

I remain to be convinced that we matter on this planet

but we are matter on this planet

and our wars

from a row in the living room

and fireworks exploding on 5th November.

to the mud-wrecked fields of France and Belgium in 1916

(of course there was no war further east as those countries didn't matter)

our wars, our glorious wars

the heroes named in memorials.

How many horses, cattle, sheep, badgers, foxes, hedgehogs

blown up in these wars

unmentioned in dispatches

though they were of course dispatched

collateral damage.

who counts among the dead?

what matters?

where are we going?