church time December 7

moonlight was used
against
its use
as there was preparation
near

sunlight
to betray as well
on
early Sunday morning

when order
and white uniforms
were torn
apart
and life a tissue by attack
and
everything exploded
while ripped-up men and women
with
children close by
tried to shoot back and
also
run

to stations
and to homes

the attack upon our useful soil
and beautiful
while
we thought
to live there and none
should
bother us by might
and
arrangement

and yet
and yet

empire and
democracy
too much to reconcile
too
divergent for our values
so we fought

with destruction
as the theme and total
the result
so
the agenda
and the strategy

the chaos of attacking
on all
sides

and so the President and Congress
said
this is officially declared
and so to the west
and east
and so many points on Earth
to
call the war
world

second Sunday in Advent
when
the candle’s lit for
peace
and on that Sunday
eighty-four
years the count
the awful
lively
living and the dying there
and then

and how might all politics and factions
reconcile
only
by tragedy

and where there is alliance
or
appreciation
now
new fronts are drawn
between
within

and these days
the radical
it seems
to keep value in the sacrifice
done
and remembered

and to apply
as we tend to think in reverse
reminding
and if owning
of
the greatest sacrifice
become
the saving doctrine

remembered by the seasons
then
and now

c l couch


photo by Graddes on Unsplash