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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sheridan" data-source="post: 1912212" data-attributes="member: 6169">My two favorite poets, Robert Service and Edgar Allen Poe, have already been mentioned, so I'll skip those.  The following was on a John Denver album back in the early/mid 1970's and I found it quite haunting (hey, I was less than 6 years old at the time).  Actually, I still do.The Box (by Lascelles)Once upon a time in the land of hush-a-bye,around about the wondrous days of yore,I came across a sort of boxbound up with chains and locked with locksand labelled, "Kindly do not touch......It’s war." Well, a decree was issued round aboutall with a flourish and a shoutand a gaily coloured mascot tripping lightly on before:"Don’t fiddle with this deadly boxor break the chains or pick the locks.And please, don’t ever play about with war." Well, the children understood,Children happen to be good,And they were just as good around the time of yoreThey didn’t try to pick the locks,or break into that deadly boxThey never tried to play about with warMommies didn’t eitherSisters, aunts, grannies neither‘Cause they were quiet and sweet and prettyin those wondrous days of yoreWell, very much the same as now,They're not the ones to blame somehowFor opening up that deadly box of warBut someone did.Someone battered in the lidAnd spilled the insides out across the floorA sort of bouncy, bumpy ballmade up of guns and flags and allthe tears and horror and the death that goes with war.It bounced right outAnd went bashing all aboutAnd bumping into everything in storeAnd what was sad and most unfairis that it didn’t seem to care much who it bumped......or why...or what...or for.It bumped the children mainly.And I’ll tell you this quite plainlyIt bumps them every day, and more and more, and leaves themdead and burned and dyingThousands of them, sick and crying'Cause when it bumps, it’s really very soreNow there’s a way to stop the ballIt isn’t difficult at allAll it takes is wisdom I’m absolutely sure that we could get it back into the boxAnd bind the chains and lock the locksBut no one seems to want to save the children any moreWell, that’s the way it all appears'Cause it’s been bouncing round for years and yearsIn spite of all the wisdom wiz since those wondrous days of yoreSince the time they came across the boxBound up with chains and locked with locksAnd labelled:"Kindly do not touch...It’s war"*Sheridan</blockquote>

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