war rhetoric

all these miles you laid
leading to your beloved people

I'm going to turn them into rubble,
and it shall catch you
oh so unawares
for you had not reckoned,
you had not calculated-with-it
that a subaltern could

and to think
that a word placed here
another ommitted there
would have saved your roads
your monuments, and castles
you had built, oh so carefully
and with fervour
never taking time out
never enjoying the joys of spring
or the lethargy of the summer

but as I push this war machine
towards your battlements
I still fear I'm walking
on the miles that I helped you lay.