Fracas 2, (The Fallen-2 of 2 paintings) oil on linen canvas 38"X48"  $18,000.00

 

If you were mortally wounded on the battlefield or in a classroom, what would your last fading thoughts and words be? Mine would probably be

..."Oh God reach for me". This is an 18 year old falling as he is struck by the bullet fired in Fracas 1. His thoughts and dreams scattered about, his life flashes in front of his eyes as he slips through the fabric of time and space.

This is a poem as it appears in the painting

Sons

My son, your son -

Our children collapsed on the battlefield, a mother’s worst nightmare -

Parents’ worst nightmare -

A terrified son’s despair that cannot be comforted -

A child’s mortal wound that cannot be nursed -

A child cloaked in darkness who cannot be reached -

A cry for help that cannot be answered and will echo for a lifetime -

You will hear in many instances that it is God’s will or a divine test. Nonsense, wars are never God’s will. Wars  are always the will of a few men -

Misguided men that set nations on paths of destruction -

A few oxytocin-less men and their lieutenants, who bully, cajole, woo, and mesmerize citizenries into acquiescence or silence -

Humanity’s hope is that their warrior mindset will fade with each passing generations. Still, war is a cunning culture with fortified institutions that self-protect and self-perpetuate -

Brutality is an unambiguous persuader -

Only a few men who use religion, nationalism, ethnicity, greed as pretexts to     bolster

their hubris and further their ambitions -

Their rhetoric is sweet in the mouth but will singe your belly, breasts and heart -

Their aim is to benefit from your labor of love and the ultimate sacrifice of the    child you so tenderly nursed to life -

They build large collections of impressive war toys. War toys require toy soldiers -

They plot in secret but will come in the light of day with decrees, medals or promises of virgins and eat your young -

Their predation is in plain sight, yet most of us miss it, choose not to see it, or have been programmed to think that it is something else -

Those few men will tell you that it is the nature of men, but that too is a lie. It is their nature -

They know that when the friend soldiers fall, anger becomes personal and the firefights will self-energize -

Still yet, where are the voices of those safeguarding the nurseries?

If your voice is not silenced then raise it. If your eyes are not blindfolded then meet their gaze -

Whisper your dreams into your infants’ ears. Teach them disdain for injustice and oppression -

Teach them to value life and kindness -

 

Yvan Lamothe