Vivre (a few poems)
Law Enforcement
(shootings on all sides)
Shootings on all
Sides
Why must there
Be sides?—too
Easily, one side
Becomes a bullseye
To the other
Many more
Become shooting
Angles in small
Wars that grow
Finally consuming
Everyone the way
Wanton wildfire
Ravages Earth
Must we choose
One group of
Combatants
Better to choose
No side at all
So that all
Sides might be
Accessible
The law of liberty
Applies here
Deciding, like
Asking, aright
Ordained and
Established if
Anew
For those who
Mourn today and
Yet live
Tomorrow
Children’s Hour
We poison them in Flint
Kill them in Paris
Sell them in Africa
And everywhere
We destroy the planet
Of their legacy
And treat them as if
They are
Of no matter now
The value of children
Traded like commodities
On the moving digital
Board
Without them we
Have no worth
A couple of minutes
On the doomsday
Clock
We’ve given them
We’ve given you
Only seconds
Mĕn-tzó
A Buddhist salutation
To a heart-troubled
People of the
Nanosecond in the
World
Transliterated, the
Better message is
Go slowly
clcouch123 
July 18, 2016 at 10:10 am
this tugs the heart, brother. this beautifully-penned poem is so frank, it revealed the hideous acts humans commit. everyday. it’s so sad. depressing. and these lines are so true:
Better to choose
No side at all
So that all
Sides might be
Accessible.
Yes. Yes.
Only love
can kill
hate.
Only unity
can heal
divide.
July 19, 2016 at 12:31 am
I’m pleased that you see this, too, even though the truth is sad. When we choose sides, we set up a winner-loser situation. And, worse, one side can do dreadful things to the other. Could we not somehow be all sides all the time? As long as the sides are not criminal. Maybe we’ll do better. Thank you, sister!
July 19, 2016 at 2:58 am
What a thought-provoking insights brother. I think it is human nature to take sides. We are prone to favorite things. It’s either coffee or tea. Ketchup or mustard. The choices are endless and we always have to pick one. And you are right, can we not somehow be neutral. I think we can.
Thank you, brother!
July 19, 2016 at 12:33 am
Thank you for your words! In love we can eliminate hate and have healed unity. You’re a wonder, sister!
July 19, 2016 at 2:57 am
You are a wonder, too, brother!! 😀