17. Warman

(Inspired by Metallica’s Eye of the Beholder)

Do you see what I see?
Only crimes and deaths.
All these terrors of our life
Take away my breath.

Do you hear what I hear?
Drumming of the war.
It lifts men to kill each other
More and more and more.

Do you fear what I fear?
Only my helplessness
That, I know it, should not be,
But how can I ‘scape this?

Do you scare who I scare?
Friends of mine and foes,
For I’m not the man already
Who before I was.

Do you give what I give?
Bullets and back stabs.
This is war! What can we do?
Everywhere are traps.

Do you take what I take?
Curses and foes’ moans.
Some day we shall stop a bullet.
But from whom? Who knows?

Do you need what I need?
Just to tell the truth,
Truth about our life, you know —
That we all are fools.

Do you feel what I feel?
Th’ end of the world’s nigh,
For we can destroy our planet,
And we all shall cry.

Do you sense what I sense?
That we all are doomed.
If we don’t stop our wrong doings,
We’ll go down into the tomb.

Do you know what it means?
Nothing will exist.
Do you do what I do?
Try not to permit this.
 
November–December ‘95, 30.03.97