Sometime in the middle Middle Ages
Urban deuce, who wasn’t lacking for
other kings and popes at Peter’s door
disrupted Christendom with an outrageous
well-armed pilgrimage whose bloody stages
ultimately broke Byzantium
killed the Cathars and left Russia numb.
Later on, we blamed the bloody wages
of centuries of silly conflict on
the Pagan north and Muslim Middle East,
ever-lapping at J.C.’s dominion.
Even now, eight centuries having gone,
these devil-haunted slaughters are the Beast
whose dumb roar is Editorial Opinion.
Jacob Bacharach 
are you seeing stuff like this cropping up in your FB feed recently, too?
http://www.strangenotions.com/the-crusdades-urban-legends-and-truth/
Excellent poem, my favorite of yours in a while.
But in my totally unsolicited opinion, this is still your best:
“But the truth about ravens
is not that they are black, but that about
when man un-animaled himself, he met
something like himself in the birds, he met
thought and mind; all fathers sat about
the winter stove, making myths of ravens.”
Cheers and thank you.
I don’t understand the last sentence. Is this about Ross Douthat?
Evil intentions result in evil done; but if you really want to fuck up the world, start with good intentions with poorly defined outcomes, inadequate resources, confused strategy and built in mission creep. A gift that keeps on giving…