11/11

11/11

 

 

Honoring peace

Honoring lives left behind

not in consecrated fields

open to air and sunlight

tended father to son,

mother to daughter.

Dust to carry forward.

Lives not given, not shared.Taken.

Ripped asunder.

Limbs, guts, glory.

Shrieking abandoned waifs,

wailing inconsolate lovers.

Screaming bombs, squealing tanks.

Arms shattered,

vision scarred

for peace, for Fatherland, for prosperity.

Today, cold, raw, ice flecks

obscure a longed-for Sun.

 

 

 

Support Our Troops

 

 

Bravery?

What if they gave a war

and nobody came?

What if our ethos gave up

on targets to blame?

March of disorders;

unstable bonds break down,

crush frightened innocents

to dust.

We meant to serve our nation.

We meant to save rights, defend

threatened treasure, stalwart

bulwarks against disaster.

We meant to honor sacrifice, work of

our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers

for the good life:

family, God, country

and a wholesome recompense of pleasure.

Not executors of horror so intense

as to reverberate through our

remaining consciousness.

Who is advanced?

Who left in pieces that never heal?

God is on the battle field

not as commanding general or inspiring

mascot,

as witness

and gentle minister

of last rites

to shattered soldiers.

 

 

 

Not in Our Name

 

 

Nobody wins in a war

(well, maybe a few financiers of war industries, but)

Not us, not them, not humanity

Not the dead, not the living

Not the yet to be born

Not the land, water, air, our natural resources

Not the roads, buildings, pipes, utility lines, the infrastructure

Not love or peace or morality

Not human nature

Not Right

Not Justice

Not God

Not the battlegrounds or the cemeteries, or the unhealable wounds in our souls

Whatever we may hope to accomplish with war,

There are better ways.