Gamers — Summary

our news that will not stop or stick

not our fight but in our ring

our prayed-for ordnance our mother of war

our sitting on the ground playing at love and hate

our absence of any questions

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The title is the key here: "Gamers" suggests people who treat war like entertainment, and the poem seems to be about the uneasy gap between living in a world of constant conflict news and doing nothing about it. The speaker keeps saying "our," so the voice is a collective one, and the poem implicates the reader along with the speaker.

The images are short and sharp. News "will not stop / or stick," meaning it floods in but never really lands. The fight is "not our fight / but in our ring," as if we have wandered into a conflict we did not choose and cannot quite leave. The phrases "prayed-for ordnance" and "mother of war" sound strange and chilling, mixing hope with weapons. By the end we are "sitting on the ground / playing at love and hate," like children, and the final line, "our absence / of any questions," lands as an accusation.

The mood is cold, numb, and quietly guilty. The speaker doesn't shout; they simply point out how passive and unquestioning we have become.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss