This war we are waging is already lost   The cause for the fighting has long been a ghost   Malice and habit have now won the day   The honours we fought for are lost in the fray      Standards and bugles are trod in the dust   Wounds have burst open, and corridors rust   Once proud and truthful, now humbled and bent   Fires which burnt brightly, now energies spent      Let down the curtain, and exit the play   The crowds have gone home and the cast sailed away   Our flowers and feathers as scarring as weapons   Our poems and letters have turned to deceptions