In Remembrance of Mercy

“O beautiful for heroes proved
in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved,
and mercy more than life!”
Katharine Lee Bates (1893)

 

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2 Responses to In Remembrance of Mercy

  1. The greatest mercy we can give
    is that to those sore victimized
    by not suffering to live
    the foe for whom beloved died.
    Thou shalt not kill’s an obligation
    but sometimes it all ain’t so clear
    when you can stop sheer devastation
    by slaughtering the mutineer.
    The calculus of spilling blood
    is not found in a holy book;
    it’s what you do, not what you should,
    and what the end to murder took.
    I hope perhaps I’ll be forgiven
    of that which, for mercy, I”ve been driven.

    • Shirlee Abbott says:

      “Thou shalt not kill” all ain’t so clear–agreed, Andrew. Sometimes justice calls for harsh action.

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