By William T. Hathaway

“Obey me or die!”
the orange-haired man threatens the world.
“My drones know you’re home,
and my missiles don’t miss.
I’m Commander in Chief, CinC for short.
I’ll sink you into the sea, fry you crisp,
burn you to dust with the push of a button.
I’ll overthrow your governments,
strangle your economies,
jail your refugees.
I’ll sound the trumpets of doom,
turn your land into a tomb!”

CinC, this may shock you,
but there are higher commanders than you.
To them we appeal for peace
and deliverance from you:

“Jaya Jaya, Vinayaka
Shiva Kailasa
Rudra Shanti
Vidjayante Taram

Protect us from the orange fire
of the orange demon
and all his NATO agents of orange.
Disembody these demons, vanish them,
banish them into the dungeon of perdition
their deeds have built for them.

Om namah Shivaya”

William T. Hathaway is a combat veteran of the US war on Vietnam, and his war novel, A World of Hurt, won a Rinehart Foundation Award. His novel of the environmental crisis, Wellsprings: A Fable of Consciousness, tells of an old woman and a young man battling the corporations that control our shrinking water supplies: https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/cosmicegg-books/our-books/wellsprings. He and his wife, Daniela, direct the Transcendental Meditation Center in Oldenburg, Germany.