An Ice Cream Truck

Afghanistan, America, American Hypocrisy, Death, Donald Trump, Inhumanity, Middle East, Poetry, Syria, The U.S. Military, U.S. Government, War, Yemen 3 Minutes

Just before the sun went down,
I heard the jingle from an ice cream truck.
Here, it is business as usual,
but in Afghanistan, a bomb just struck.

Tomorrow, the ice cream truck
will make its way down my tree-lined street.
But over in bomb-struck Syria,
little children have no bread to eat.

The next day, the ice cream truck
will once again offer cold, creamy treats
while we wait to hear from Donald Trump
about North Korea via his stupid tweets.

Another day, another ice cream truck;
an absurdity in a world at war.
 It would seem to be quite laughable,
but I just cry til I can’t no more.

I’d send you an ice cream truck,
if I thought it would do you any good,
but when you’re fleeing a war torn land
there’s only debris where homes once stood.

One day, that ice cream truck
will drive down my street no more.
We’ll have killed those across the sea
and on our own, we will then wage war.

That day will surely come,
since war is all we know.
And though we killed you first,
where you went, we too shall go.

So to those who lust for war,
and who gloat over all we’ve killed,
the treats in an ice cream truck
are not as cold as your heart so chilled.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

At around 8:00pm, the ice cream truck jingles its way down my street and I look out down the street and the children are gathering in front of it with their money in hand which they exchange for cold, creamy treats. I cannot help but think of the children in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen who have been killed by bombs dropped on them by our government via the U.S. military. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that soldiers, who have children, can send missiles to foreign lands knowing that there is no way to hit only fixed targets since we all know that ‘collateral damage’ is inevitable in military operations and that they are killing children while expecting only ‘ice cream truck’ experiences for their own. Their children are never to be ‘collateral damage’, otherwise known as the unintended casualties of war. I am sure that the ‘unintended casualties’ of war are most glad to know that they were mortally wounded, accidental like by America’s soldiers who want only ice cream truck encounters for their children. I am sure that those who were blown to bits died knowing that they were just in the way; in the wrong place at the wrong time. There will be no ice cream truck rolling down the street offering them cold, creamy treats; just body bags for those who are more than just bits and pieces.

But here in America, the ice cream trucks are still rolling down our streets, inviting our children to come and pick their favorite cold treat and go happily back to their yards to play while those in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are praying that the bombing will stop, wishing that they still had homes to go to, trying to remember what it felt like to play and certainly are not hearing the jingle of an ice cream truck as it makes its way down a tree-lined street on a quiet evening inviting them to partake of its cold delights.

I am going to keep this one civil even though I am seething and ready to spontaneously combust over the fact that all is quiet here and there is only the echo of the jingle from an ice cream truck and I cannot know or appreciate the hell that those in foreign lands are being put through thanks to those who are hell bent on making it a fact that this world will never know peace. Oh, the absurdity of an ice cream truck!

Published by ShelbyCourtland

I am an advocate for the poverty stricken, homeless, hungry, voiceless people who are considered to be the 'unwashed' masses but whom I consider to be the unsung heroes for surviving a never ending battle waged against them in the form of poverty wages, no benefits, living paycheck to paycheck, needing medical coverage while employed, trying to feed their families on stagnant wages that have not kept pace with inflated prices. And so the battle continues.....

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9 thoughts on “An Ice Cream Truck”

  1. But Shelby, how else to establish future enemies than to kill and cripple children of foreign lands, giving them something to remember us by, eh?

    Great post.

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    1. Great comment Peter! And oh how true it is! We sit somewhere wondering why people of foreign lands would ever want to send a missile up our ass when we are doing that to them on a daily basis just cause we can.

      I have written blog post after blog post tearing unholy hell out of our military because if not for them, there would be no wars because Trump and his ilk, Obama and his ilk and so forth and so on could not send a missile anywhere if they had to do it themselves. And then we have the nerve, the unmitigated gall to thank those depraved warwhores for their service in continuing to add to the number of people who hate this hellhole. They cannot understand that you will never get anyone to love you when you are bombing them daily and for no reason? Because what Middle Eastern country that we have bombed or are bombing has come over here and bombed us from one end to the other? Not one. And yet our military has no problem bombing the hell out of countries that have done nothing to this hellhole and how they can sleep at night, I don’t know. But there are just too many who are exactly like the Trumps, Obamas and Clintons.

      Peter, I thank you for your comment.

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  2. The problem as I see it is that our foreign policy is run by bald middle aged white men in suits – come to think of it they run every aspect of our lives. The choices they leave us are very limited pretend choices – we have virtually unlimited choice in the brands we choose at the supermarket. But no choice in the areas of life that really matter.

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    1. Your comment as well, is spot on, Dr. Bramhall. Yeah, we have the choice of what to pick out at the grocery store to eat, what liquor to buy and we can go on Ebay and Amazon and buy most anything as long as we have the money to pay for it, but just as you say, when we call or write our so-called ‘representatives’ in Washington, we have no say when we demand that there be an end to these endless wars that do nothing but add to the enemy list of Amerikkka. This hole is imploding and nothing is being done to shore it up because the military needs the money to drop another MOAB in Afghanistan that did what? Not a damn thing.

      And this is why I carry on so about those pasty-faced assholes who are bound and determined to destroy us all because of their pompous arrogance, greed and indifference to life; animal, plant and human. We are all at the ‘mercy’ of those depraved menaces to this world. For the love of !!!!!

      I thank you for your comment Dr. Bramhall!

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    1. Nido, I truly wish that I were some sort of vile witch because I would have long since placed a spell so goddamn bad on this shithole that any volcano that’s over here would have burst wide open and would make Pompeii look like a vacation spot next to what this shithole would look like. I would make sure that every tectonic plate would shift so damn hard that even every anthill would collapse, fuck McMansions and other ‘human’ dwellings. I would make sure that not even one American cockroach would survive, much less these brain dead, stupid cretins. This shithole needs to be destroyed BEFORE it has time to destroy the entire world! And though I do understand that if Russia and China were to blast this shithole into nothing, that the fallout would spread, worldwide, it would be a chance I’d be willing to take to shut this shit down, once and for all!

      Nido, great to see you and I thank you for your comment.

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