Desert Dweller

Why do they write world wars
with Roman numerals
instead of Arabic numbers?
oops—
I guess that’s self-explanatory.

No better time
than the beginning of battle
to pray to the almighty.

I like Mark Twain’s prayer best
to remind me
what I’m really asking for
when I pray for victory:

“O Lord our God,
help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells;

help us to cover their smiling fields
with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
help us to drown the thunder of the guns
with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;
help us to lay waste their humble homes
with a hurricane of fire;

help us to wring the hearts
of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;
help us to turn them out roofless
with little children to wander unfriended
the wastes of their desolated land
in rags and hunger and thirst,…

…for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord,
blast their hopes, blight their lives,
protract their bitter pilgrimage,
make heavy their steps,
water their way with their tears,
stain the white snow
with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love,
of Him Who is the Source of Love,”

World War Three
has begun
planes flying
bombs falling people dying
cities falling.

Let us prey.

© 2026 Bruno Talerico
42/365

Image found on the internet.