Death And Taxes (2)

In the days of the simplest, most autocratic, governments
and of doctors who plied their arts before modern science
not only were death and taxes the most reliable parts of life,
but taxes meant imminent death
-less for those who were taxed and stayed at home,
and more for those who were sent to war,
because that is what taxes were levied for.

Wars were as inevitable as dynastic strife,
and they had to be paid for somehow,
and not just in lives of the enemy taken
but in the skills in making weaponry and armour
and the materials for uniforms and households
of soldiers who were supported as they travelled.

The taxes we pay in a peace time economy
are still part of a war-now it is against nature
rather than against each other.