Poison
Poisoning of people;
since the ancients
it was an easy, underhand way
to dispose of individual adversaries,
avoiding overt bloodshed and mayhem,
in small-scale, behind-the-scenes
fait accomplis.
Until:
with mechanisation, air warfare
it began to take off, literally:
en masse plagues dropped from above;
indiscriminate abominations
which led to Hiroshima
and on to 245 bomb drops in the Pacific,
with generations of boneless still-borns
-for many Millennias- augered.
Once research laboratories developed,
experimentation escalated
along with increasing hi tech skills
chemical and biological savvy
plus tools. Include mice and monkeys.
I thought a Lab Rat was a person
a human-thing. A clever-clogs.
Error.
Today.
Secret, often underground facilities
still lurk in many lands,
unlabelled, carrying on
with borrowed, mercenary or hijacked, specialised expertise
from death camps, ethnic cleansings and killing fields, world-wide
all in the name of the idol - science;
abetted and humanised,
by dignified re-employment to elite posts in revered institutes
and global seats of learning.
A dark godling still bent on destruction
expanding exponentially
while learning to distance itself
from hands-on dirty work
with nice job-titles, honours and spin.
Stockpiles of tiny bottles of grisly death,
each, enough to annihilate all life-forms
and rationalised as defensive deterrents
for in case arms-race scenarios
underpinning our facades
of genteel, sanitised democracies
as much as in the cellars of rogue states and ideological factions eager to deploy;
synthesised in garden sheds, urban lofts
as well as top-priority, secret bunkers.
Is this what it takes?
What our species is made of?
A murderous gene, direct from Cain?
In these digital days,
death-wishing gone viral?
On-going refinements and improvements
of material, technique, delivery
in aid of the endless quest
for control, power and personal survival
at the cost of other’s lives.
The Earth itself needs no angels
of retribution.
The cycles, balance, self-sustains.
All creatures, flora and bio-systems,
abide by, flow and comply with
the seasons, processes and ordinance..
...apart from the hybrid man-thing.