Thirty-Year War

Are you certain
You got your facts straight
It’s been a long time
And the language may have changed
Are you certain
You trust your memory
From a time when we
Still believed in right and wrong
Have you recorded all the casualties
All the strategies
Of this thirty-year war
I remember
How the prisoners
Used to comfort me
Even as I locked the cells
I got to know them
Their eccentricities
Their family histories
And who it was they used to be
Back before all the casualties
All the strategies
Of this thirty-year war
All they don’t know
Is that so long ago
I was a prisoner in this very cell
What they don’t see
Is the part of me
That still wears the scars of criminality
They don’t identify me anymore
I will not be another casualty
Of my very own
Thirty-year war