War of the Shoe-Strings

If you tripped over

a shoe-string

would you go to war,

even if this caused

an ignominious tumble?

Lives have been

risked for less. 

Imagine war conducted 
on a principle

not involving loss of life,

battles fought, perhaps,

with drums.

We’d sell our spears and guns

for use as hop-poles,

use our swords as scythes, 
and hear our vast tracts 
of land resound with 
“rub-a-dub-dub.”

Found poem by Mary Bast
Source: Beyond the Looking Glass: Extraordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy)