Brave Peace

It’s Friday
I don’t want
To talk about the war

Ain’t gonna study war no more

Especially
The war inside
That causes all the troubles
On
The outside

We let the inside
Get away
With so much
Nonsense that is
Nonsense
That gets
To destroy so much
That we were counting on
The way
We count on
Things
Such as air
And sometimes
Heaven help us
Boredom

Why do we let
Invisible
Get away with so much
To say
There’s a war on
And it means so much
Because
A life is gone
And then another

In a heartbeat
Save there is
No more
A heartbeat

And everything’s in pieces
Gruesome pieces
(if you are not
there
but have read All Quiet
on the Western
Front then
you know something)
And also
Walls
Machine parts
That we counted on
Like air

And I guess
That is the thing
There’s no more breathing
Or there’s
Barely breathing
While the world after
Might remain
Quiet
For a half an hour
Or so

And then resume
A way to war
(to study war)
Or maybe
With diplomacy
Or blooded on
The face
eventuality

A way
To rebuild
After war

Though too often
Then
To knock it down
Again
As if hell’s game
Should never end

Except
In final judgment
When the children
(of all ages)
Of beatitude
Shall own
Peace-making again
Outside
The sermon

For the fact
Of sight and sound
Of war
And having chosen
Anyway

The one
Not taken
As the narrow way

And shall there be an echo
For an echo
Inside heaven
And on
New Earth

I don’t know
Here’s one
I note
And now another
To be counting
Or
Not counting
Might be overwhelming
All the believing gates
Regardless

C L Couch


Photo by Shamoil on Unsplash