When Word War One ended
It didn’t end
Years of silent sorrow came
Then years of poverty
And Germany down trodden so
Looked for a redeemer
Someone to unite them
Make them stronger
The strong man came
His name was Adolf Hitler
When World War Two ended
It didn’t end
The Cold War started
Each the other feared
We feared the Communists
Their lack of human freedoms
They feared the mighty West
Whence all their troubles came
Brutal armies advancing
Across the Ukraine plain
Then the Berlin Wall came down
And a Russian free-for-all
Until a strong man came again
To organise the stall
A Soviet KGB man
Tough and resolute
Top man like old Stalin
Obey or I will shoot
The mental game is where it’s at
The way we look and see
Russia’s closed in system
Nato’s military spree
Look at the world through the other’s eyes
See what they now see
A better understanding
Is needed – don’t you see?
It’s easy to condemn the foe
For evils he has done
Much harder to own our failings
Or the fears that we have sown
Some things cannot be settled now
Some things take years to grow
Some times we have to settle for less
To avoid a much worse show
Patience in our suffering
Faith in what will be
And goodness now in everything
Can set this poor world free
Brian Fahy
30 September 2022
+ During the length of my life the psychological game has been the suspicious look between Russia and the West. John le Carre wrote stories about it. That silly nonsense, James Bond, played games in it. We regard ourselves as ‘above’ Russia because we promote individual human freedoms as paramount, whereas the Communist state claims first place for the state itself. Communism is wicked in that regard, but so-called ‘free’ countries are not without guilt for their selfish practises. Pope John Paul II, a fierce opponent of communism, also had sharp criticisms to make of the West.
In the present state of world affairs, we see the plank in Putin’s eye, but tend not to see any problem of vision in our own.
Erris Poetry 