Hatchet of Brutality

"How far back the stubborn gnarled roots of the quarrel reached, no one could say." (From Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen)

How long ..? No one could tell!!
Mama seemed suuuuure that HER position was the right one
That HERS was the undeniable TRUTH
Now how did it start in the Bible again?
How far back in time must we go to find the roots of the conflict? 

Were the Philistines and the Jews born fighting? 
And how far forward into the future must we go to find an end to it?
Are all the children born in that Land doomed to HATE?
And to have their lifeblood sucked into this conflict, 

sometimes paying the ultimate price, their life, 

for what started as an ancient fight between the ancestors?

"The Vendetta will end when ten thousand warriors ride their donkeys backwards to the wailing wall,

each carrying his burial shroud on his head in total humility" says mama 

Of that task, women are spared
Theirs is only to give Life in birth
To the living embodiment of Hate 

Only to have it snatched away sometime
by HATEFUL men  

and obliterated
By the enormous steel limbs of machinery

also invented by HATEFUL men

What matters "Today"?
"Tomorrow" there are still droves of those 

willing to pay the ultimate price
Whether blind or clear-eyed, 

they must go to their death again and again
Before one people overcomes another
and the Hatchet of Brutality is buried forever

How long must we wait, mama?
No one can tell, son
Why cant we go NOW?! and burry the hatchet? 

Now is good mamma, before more people die
Now is not yet the time
How do yo know?
I know because the stars are not aligned
Another comet must come from the east

for us to follow to the west

The, only then,

When the sign appears, only then must we act