seventeen years
of war
and it still seemed
there was no end in sight
The battle of Mexicali
had been fierce
but yielded little resolve
the general
had advised
asking for,
as a tactic,
a cease fire
but the idea had been
been denied
He thought asking for cease fire would make them appear weak
and their enemy would think they needed time to restructure
when
the opposite was actually true
his forces were well armed
trained and at their highest
levels since the start of the war
The general was hoping to make the enemy
greedy and overextend themselves
then he could could cut them off
from their supply lines
divide them 
and put an end to this stupid tragedy
but it was as he had always
assumed
they didn't want this war to end
it solved too many problems