When Three Cousins Played

Three cousins played a “game’ of war A map of Europe spread across the floor No adults there to keep the score As each of them wanted more and more Three of four empires lay upon that map As they played and ‘warred’ and they did clap For them it was so much fun The Tsar, the King and the Kaiser Hun Their brightly painted toy soldiers there Horses, cannon and ships to spare Fields of green, mountains so high And winding rivers flowing by They chatted, laughed - each did deride No malice here - no need to chide “I’ll take that while you have this” “And you can have the rest” said with a hiss The little prince was not too happy Didn’t like being the youngest chappy Scattered toys with a vicious kick “One day, you watch, your wounds you’ll lick” But then they laughed and had some tea (Cakes and scones stop the fighting, see) Then the boisterous cousins resumed once more Horses and soldiers were flung against the door Cannon crashed and sabres slashed Lances lunged and bayonets flashed Horses fell amid broken carts These small boys played in fits and starts The clock rolled on relentlessly Who knew then what would come to be These boys now grown to Emperors Played with real life and caused real wars No longer soldiers made of lead These soldiers breathed and fought and bled And now the grown children fought for real With a rancour fuelled by their ardent zeal The call to arms was swift and sure Decrees brought nations to their war Men and women joined the cause Volunteered without let or pause On land and sea and in the air The raw recruits signed up everywhere Landlord, docker, farmer, daughter Leapt like lemmings to the slaughter Knowing not that they were pawns In this “family” feud, so filled with scorn Becoming airman, sailor, soldier, wren Many would never see their land again Their women joined as well, of course And filled the factories, making guns and gauze Toiled and sweated, fabricating bombs As the cousins watched with such detached aplomb The First World War: “War to end all wars” Was the Emperors’ legacy to ours and yours They took their subjects from far-flung lands Pulled them from forest, dale and Raj and sand. The Emperors vied each other viciously Ego and spat sparred ominously It was another’s war but they refused to see The brutal costs of this calamity War declared and fought - millions died While these three cousins sat on their thrones and sighed Just like the children with the map They battled hard but now they didn’t clap The cost of war was a heavy one Ypres, Verdun, Mons, the Somme Paschendale just to name a few The blood rivers flowed and grew and grew Four years of war and carnage Ravaged Europe’s lands While those three wretched cousins Stood and wrung their hands One Emperor imprisoned by his very own Would soon be killed and there no more throne Another forced to abdicate Death in a foreign land was his fate The third had played a different card Had visited men and women so battle scarred Had he foreseen the masses plight Had he “joined’ in their fight? Yet not even he was spared As the masses had seen, had felt, had heard That no more will a king decide Their fate, the deaths, the genocide One of those three cousins and his family Was cruelly murdered ignominiously After centuries the hated, despotic Tsar Made way to the Bolshevik commissar The second cousin haughty, proud Was chased away by a defeated crowd Languished in the land of dyke and dam Helplessly watched blitzkrieg from a sure madman The third cousin watched this sullenly His health was racked for all to see Perhaps he reflected and recalled the days When as boys those three cousins had played Republics sprung up everywhere The spoils of war the people’s share Though kings were replaced by presidents Again war would follow. Again Europe rent In an aside, as the map was shred Europe torn apart as the Empires bled The fourth Empire also crumbled Started it all – now meekly humbled The proud Hapsburgs also dethroned Austro-Hungarian Empire creaked and groaned Then splintered and shattered like crystal glass As Europe fell to the common mass Three young cousins with the lead/tin toys Had played and warred when they were boys What frightful shameful fact When, as men, they again did act When Emperors played with human lives Unheeded the senseless sacrifice Aided by ruthless men of state That threw Europe to a dreadful fate A bygone age; a noble past Had been replaced. The die was cast Let’s not place on them the singular blame When politicians and tyrants did the same Three young cousins played a game The map of Europe, then the same But they would live to see the end result For throwing the world into blind tumult