Which Life Will
It is a day for remembrance
The ships are sinking deeper
Parts of other things
Relevant
Are found below
Now and then
A surprise attack isn’t good
Not for defenders
And all our planes and ships in tows
Exploded one after another
And the people
The people mattered more
And the loss of them was grand in scale
And awful
Enemies to allies
Plans
To rebuild the world
Maybe we learn from these great wars
That great is relative
(like grand)
That loss is terrible
In the unnatural aspect of the thing
In which we kill our siblings
And our parents
And our children
The nations’ lines that
Might come back
Rearranged
While those who live within
Might not be caring more
Than the chance
To live on either side
Though lines may
Determine policies
Sometimes
Ways to live
Perhaps
Challenges to
Pride
A pride I doubt those
Gone
Might feel
Anymore
Though we don’t know the afterlife that well
As for this life
Well
There is that learning
Before we add more numbers to
The world at war
C L Couch
Photo by Luke Scarpino on Unsplash
(x = space)
x
x
Someone Said a Pearl for a Harbor
(7 December 1941, an invocation)
x
Whom shall we honor
Today?
The citizens of Hawaii
Who died then
For strategy
On two sides
x
The crews
Of small submarines
That tried to get through
And sank somewhere
Close by
x
Mostly, the soldiers
We should honor
For the loss of life,
By the by material
That could (by the by)
Cost a war
x
Honor convictions?
How shall they be
Dispersed?
On either side,
There might be recognition
Even under actions
Worse for horror and
A lack of declaration
x
I don’t know,
There were people everywhere:
Many termed the enemy
Who were not in any way
An enemy
Taken to camps
Frankly
For looking different
(I say exotic and
of the USA—the
ubiquitous they
say the difference
lay in espionage,
so we became
the creepers
and the judges);
We hadn’t done so
To the urban Germans here
Or in our suburbs,
On the farms
Or to the Italians
Though I wouldn’t be surprised
To hear
They weren’t treated well
In the environs
Of duration
x
We sent to camps
Then tried not to think
Some more about
Walled and shadowed camps
Turning into
Many of our own
For racist reasons;
We could have tasked
The FBI, the OSS
Instead
For their investigations
x
There is a danger
That the battleship memorial
Might slide into the water,
As it placed one way or another
Over tombs
Of flesh and rust
x
I’d hate for that happen,
For we need remembrance
x
We need to remember
Many things:
God and our conscience
Make it so
x
Recalling sudden loss of life,
A shining, lethal campaign of
Surprise
x
Oh, we should be careful:
Watch our shores,
Keep our early systems
Early,
Though we need no longer
Look to the right and left
For enemies
Since looking right and left
Shall land on every one
Of us
x
And what’s left of united?
x
My families
Fought inside this war
That we remember;
Some could still
Tell stories
That tend to
Try the young to hear
x
On this day remember, then—those
Who could see and hear
And taste and touch,
Who suddenly
Lost all the senses
Along with mortal life,
The joy of daily living
In a paradise
We tried to covet
For a paradise
x
Farewell, we may salute
And say
All those
Who cannot call out
Except for memory,
Call out
For each other
In the fire
And the smoke
x
And the few remaining
Now
Who would
Can tell us
Of the hours
And the aftermath
x
Times and
Experiences
That
Soldiers, sailors, flyers—on
The ground, on deck, or in the air—
Mechanics and KP,
Bystanders
Try not to talk about
So much
x
C L Couch
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Photo by Kyle Chicoine on Unsplash
Birds by the Bay
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clcouch123 
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