Archduke Franz Ferdinand

with no troops at his command

was brought down by an assassin’s hand.

That’s how the war began.

No one thought it would last long,

but they were all sadly wrong,

as with alliances and patriotic song

they moved the war along.

From the very start

the men in trenches did their part

until shot through the head or heart

to be taken away on a medic’s cart.

As history has taught before

the fighting gave us only blood and gore.

If not to stop the next great war,

what are lessons for?

One wonders if in time we’ll learn

to put away our weapons, to discern

the true value of a human life, to turn

from war to peace before we burn.

A century past the Archduke’s time

the game of war is still a crime.

A century past the Archduke’s time

The arts of peace are still sublime.