Vindicta

Is there a more terrible quest
Than the quest for revenge? Is there

Any more all-consuming love
Than the love of vengeance? Righteous,

Ferociously moral people
Commit blood-soaked atrocities

In the name of holy vengeance,
Pretending sequential horrors

Define justice by their order
Of events. First, this crime was done.

Now wallow in crimes to follow,
Which aren’t crimes as they weren’t the first.

You say this is redress, you say
Only the guilty will suffer.

Burn houses, you’ll burn some children.
Burnt villages were their houses.

Any particular village
Likely had at least one writer

Or artist or musician,
At least one place of devotion.

What are your chances of burning
Only villains in your given

Targeted enemy village?
Any state; many villages,

Many children, many people
Other than the ones who harmed you.

Oh, but you can taste it, can’t you?
All of you have tasted, known it,

That cramping hunger for revenge.
Revenge won’t end it. It won’t end.