Left or Right

[vishaksagar]

Edit 3

For those left I write.
Did war decide who's right or who's left?
Or did it decide who's left, the one's right.
For when those left aren't right,
death was the fate for those who were.
When the left are right and rights aren't left;
we are left our final rites, our final rights.
What is left is what is right.
That's when the left are right and rights are left.

Edit 2

For those left I write
Did war decide who's right or who's left
Or did it decide who's left, the one's right
For when those left aren't right
Death was the fate for those who were
When the left are right and rights aren't left
We are left our final rites our final rights
What is left is what is right
That's when the left are right and rights are left

Edit 1

Did war decide who's right or who's left
For when left isn't right and right is left
Death is feared by those left
Life is feared  from those right
But when left is right and right isn't left
We are left our final rites our final rights
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

Original

Did war decide who's right or who's left
For when left isn't right and right is left
Feared is death by those left
Feared is right from those right
But when left is right and right isn't left
We are left our final rites our final rights
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

[cidermaid]

A fun read, but I do kind of feel that this pun has been played to death and I have heard  similar variants of it many times - but even saying this, I still enjoyed the read
Two lines with inversion of syntax ruined it for me though.  Why not just say Death is feared / life is feared.?  These two lines really jarred the read.
All the best AJ.

Did war decide who's right or who's left
Or did it decide who's left and who's right
For when left isn't right and right is left
Feared is death by those left
Feared is life from those right
But when left is right and right isn't left
We are left our final rites our final rights
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

[vishaksagar]

A fun read, but I do kind of feel that this pun has been played to death and I have heard  similar variants of it many times - but even saying this, I still enjoyed the read
Two lines with inversion of syntax ruined it for me though.  Why not just say Death is feared / life is feared.?  These two lines really jarred the read.
All the best AJ.

Did war decide who's right or who's left
Or did it decide who's left and who's right
For when left isn't right and right is left
Feared is death by those left
Feared is life from those right
But when left is right and right isn't left
We are left our final rites our final rights
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

Thanks now it sounds better.

[Achebe]

This poem doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The puns don't work. If I am missing something, let me know:

Did war decide who's right or who's left         so far so good. Left = left standing
Or did it decide who's left and who's right      first pun, left / right = who's left standing and who's in the right. how does war decide who's right? if he who is left is in the right because history is written by the winner, then the 'and' does not make sense. 
For when left isn't right and right is left, first, it should be 'the left' and 'aren't' instead of isn't, 'are' instead of 'is'. If the left aren't right, then the right may or may not be left. In this case, the right are left. The poem does not address the case of where the left aren't right and the right aren't left. Therefore, it is not even an exhaustive, if utterly boring, exposition of the various possible permutations of 'left' / 'not left' and 'right' / 'not right' (4 possible cases). 
Death is feared by those left why? because we all have to die someday?
Life is feared  from those right why on earth???
But when left is right and right isn't left . If those left are right, then at lease some of the right are left. I have wasted some precious moments of my life trying to make sense of it and I must conclude that this line is nonsense.
We are left our final rites our final rights from here on, the poem breaks down beyond repair
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

the danger of writing a 'clever' poem is that unless it is really clever, there's a strong chance that it'll frustrate the reader.

[vishaksagar]

This poem doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The puns don't work. If I am missing something, let me know:

Did war decide who's right or who's left         so far so good. Left = left standing
Or did it decide who's left and who's right      first pun, left / right = who's left standing and who's in the right. how does war decide who's right? if he who is left is in the right because history is written by the winner, then the 'and' does not make sense. - Ah yes, and doesn't make sense there. - Or did it decide who's left, the one's right
For when left isn't right and right is left, first, it should be 'the left' and 'aren't' instead of isn't, 'are' instead of 'is'. If the left aren't right, then the right may or may not be left. -  For when the left isn't right  - meaning that they are wrong not in the sense that they changed their position of ideology. The right are left - In this case, the right are left. The poem does not address the case of where the left aren't right and the right aren't left. Therefore, it is not even an exhaustive, if utterly boring, exposition of the various possible permutations of 'left' / 'not left' and 'right' / 'not right' (4 possible cases). - I'm not trying that
Death is feared by those left why? because we all have to die someday? - ok I give. This and the following sentence can be reworked. - Death is feared by those left from those right. - 
Life is feared  from those right why on earth???
But when left is right and right isn't left . If those left are right, then at lease some of the right are left. I have wasted some precious moments of my life trying to make sense of it and I must conclude that this line is nonsense. The left are right - in the sense that they are correct - rights aren't left - Rights as in human rights
We are left our final rites our final rights from here on, the poem breaks down beyond repair - ok
What is left is what is right
That's when left is right and right is left

the danger of writing a 'clever' poem is that unless it is really clever, there's a strong chance that it'll frustrate the reader.

Thanks.

[QDeathstar]

this idea is isn't original and I feel like the poem comes off as ignorantly arrogant. You got some thoughts here but for whatever reason you've decided to imprison them in bad pun. Also, I can't stop thinking about that song "seether" seether is neither left or right...

[Erthona]

Drop the white space—Use punctuation[b]—Don't start every line with a capital letter unless it is the start of a sentence—Rhetoric is not poetry. [/b]

"Did war decide who's right or who's left (question mark)
For when left isn't right and right is left (senseless)
Death is feared by those left (period)
Life is feared  from those right (unproven assumption)
But when left is right and right isn't left (pointless ambiguity)
We are left our final rites our final rights (grammar)
What is left is what is right (what is brown is what is red)
That's when left is right and right is left" (That's when up is down, and down is up...PERIOD)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Overall the lack of clarity dooms this poem. The ambiguity level about what is meant by "left" and "right" is way to high at various points and the poem becomes senseless. There are grammatical errors that also present problems to clarity, example:

"We are left our final rites our final rights"
"We are left with final rites, or our "final rights"   although "final rights still carries a high level of ambiguity with it as there really is no such thing as "our final rights" if one is talking in terms of inherent human rights. We may have the supposed "right" to them, but the human race has been deprived of them throughout most of history. "Final rights" meaning the last rights to go, which is actually a misconception

To me personally, the poem comes across as a bit crass, that one should make a word game out of one of the more serious areas facing civilization. Note such places as Darfur, Syria, Lebanon, not to mention large portions of Africa (aside from Darfur).  

Best,

dale

[vishaksagar]

Drop the white space—Use punctuation[b]—Don't start every line with a capital letter unless it is the start of a sentence—Rhetoric is not poetry. [/b]

"Did war decide who's right or who's left (question mark)
For when left isn't right and right is left (senseless)
Death is feared by those left (period)
Life is feared  from those right (unproven assumption)
But when left is right and right isn't left (pointless ambiguity)
We are left our final rites our final rights (grammar)
What is left is what is right (what is brown is what is red)
That's when left is right and right is left" (That's when up is down, and down is up...PERIOD)
_____________________________________________________________________________
Overall the lack of clarity dooms this poem. The ambiguity level about what is meant by "left" and "right" is way to high at various points and the poem becomes senseless. There are grammatical errors that also present problems to clarity, example:

"We are left our final rites our final rights"
"We are left with final rites, or our "final rights"   although "final rights still carries a high level of ambiguity with it as there really is no such thing as "our final rights" if one is talking in terms of inherent human rights. We may have the supposed "right" to them, but the human race has been deprived of them throughout most of history. "Final rights" meaning the last rights to go, which is actually a misconception

To me personally, the poem comes across as a bit crass, that one should make a word game out of one of the more serious areas facing civilization. Note such places as Darfur, Syria, Lebanon, not to mention large portions of Africa (aside from Darfur).  

Best,

dale

Thank you, I have made the grammatical changes in edit 3. As you and others have mentioned this poem is a mess. It wasn't my intention to make light of the problems facing the world.

[Grim]

this idea just seems weak i believe their a great idea in their somewhere but somehow its been smothered by an pun heavy poem with a frustrating un-original repetition i would suggest taking the essence of this and taking it your own direction ignoring things you've heard before or are seen as cliche.