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Silent War

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Most people

Can’t see beyond

Their own perspective

And why should they

We were made

Impulsively to carry

One

Those who can see

Beyond one’s own way

Become the diplomats

Negotiating

Everyone’s self-interest

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Every now and then

We all do better

It happened famously

At Christmastime

During the

Great War

When foes came together

They had stopped firing

To take up games instead

Drink together

Have photos taken

Then afterward,

Resumed the awful,

Blooded action

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For a time,

Everyone saw more

They saw each other

The different colors didn’t matter

They saw across

The horrible divide

Saw the real fundamentals

For a while,

Which are few

Human to human

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We can get it

We can have it

We can stop the war

Better than the appointed

Though they can

They can get it, too

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Which goes for the small wars, too

Maybe we can

Instinct over impulse

Will

Look over the trench

Of a mile or inches

Take on

Protect

The other’s way

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C L Couch

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‘Pea Soup or Cocoa’, Longueval, France, World War I, Dec 1916. Taken in December, 1916, just after the brutal Somme Offensive (1 July – 18 Novemember) in the wooded area north of the Somme River. The mud of the ruined terrain covers the men and the small buffet station. A sense of humour is present in the cynical joke ‘Pea Soup or Cocoa’ – a dry comment on the quality of the limited food and drink available to troops at the frontline. Soldiers wrote with detail on food and drink conditions on the front.

Photo by Museums Victoria on Unsplash

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