Left or Right

[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.