journal

(x = space)

Dear Next Page

This isn’t a diary

Dear Poem

Or what have you

Diaries are for

Confessions

Apologies in the old-fashioned way

As in explanations

Defensive explanations

And wishes

Wishes maybe

For the world to change

I keep a journal,

Which in the definitive way

Is dull

Why do I think the way I do? is

Taken on

And why is there breath

Or anything

But here’s the thing,

There I often write about

The way I feel

Not asking why I feel this way,

Simply saying

Maybe it is a diary, after all,

In the tradition of

A lock and key

I have a password

C L Couch

Photo by Drahomír Posteby-Mach on Unsplash

Trollenäs 104, 241 92 Eslöv, Sweden, Trollenäs

Commemoration of an armistice.

Remembrance, acknowledgement, and honoring of all veterans from all wars, everywhere. What do the warlords care? They care for strong backs and arms that shoulder fearsome guns. But in a democracy of feeling, the rest of us know individuals. Hopefully, we know their stories and we tell them.

What do I know? I know their service is a wonder. Their sacrifice a heartbreak. Their strength shoulders the mind.

I went to Gettysburg in late December. I felt it the saddest place on Earth. How many open battlefields have we? How many can house or canopy the service of the dead? The preservation of the living?

Yes, there’s Flanders Field. Somme and Gallipoli. Israel and Egypt in week-long wars. Massacres in India and China. Killing of indigenous that maybe should be classified as war.

Why do we have war? Elihu Root claims that it has to do with keeping peace, an irony of iron substance. The New Testament asserts it’s because we ask amiss. We ask for things we cannot have. And so we take them.

I don’t know. I don’t know anyone who favors war except in movies. I don’t think real people do that, favor war. We fight so there’s an end. We fight so that the fighting stops.

Will there ever be a battle in Antarctica? Can we keep one place clear?

I hope we cherish veterans of service and of war. And the peace they promise.

note

This is from my journal entry for the day. I wrote a poem, which I should post. Not because it’s great but because it’s timely. When I wrote about the day this way (excerpt above), it seemed appropriate, too. Hope so. Hope you’re all, veterans and civilians, really well. If not, I hope you’re better soon.

https://albanyvisitors.com/explore/veterans-day-parade/

The Albany’s Veterans Day Parade is the biggest Veterans Day celebration west of the Mississippi.