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war

Wargodlike

(x = space)

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Wargodlike

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We’ve known God

For a long, long time

Leaders used to want

To curry favor

So built monuments, set

Time

Struck stone tombs with

Asking after asking after asking

To be let in

In a public sense,

Regardless of administration

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It’s easy now

It’s vogue to say there is no God

So no one to attend

No one to tithe

No one to contribute anything

Except to me

And my circle

Broken, though I do not know

Cursed through an absence of words

Who hasn’t earned ruins

But the detritus in between

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C L Couch

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Photo by Matin Tavazoei on Unsplash

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To Ishmael

(x = space)

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To Ishmael

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What will be left

Between

These two countries now?

What of Isaac and Ishmael

Of neighbors

And of families?

How will they get along?

Whom will they know

To trust at all?

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Will they come to a table,

Meet in a field?

Shall the words of Mizpah follow

Or better

An embrace?

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We have these words

Restoration

Reconciliation

How will we enact these

Make them manifest?

How might peace abound

While the search

For food and intact buildings

Is abundant?

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They came together

To bury their father

To bury death;

Nothing more

Broke out between

Them, then

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Might generations know

Viable forgiveness

Dead anger

Such as render borders blurred

In teary vision,

In homely

Transactions:

Dinner by

A fire that heats and cooks

With chairs left out

For friends

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C L Couch

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Photo by Gradienta on Unsplash

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War in Ukraine

(x = space)

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War in Ukraine

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If I lived where I live

In Ukraine,

I would be in a battlefield

And would have been here

For some time

I can’t imagine

Mostly because I don’t want to

Explosions down the street

Bullets through the windows

We are involved in

The war on terror

The war on drugs

A cyber war

And violence because our races

Don’t get along

And for other reasons

I’ve been accosted

But mostly enjoy

Citizenship without warfare

On my street

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But in eastern Ukraine

This has been the state for years

Kitchens are not kitchens

Living rooms can’t be

For living anymore

And now my country’s ringed with

Tanks and soldiers and what else

And I have no gun

And don’t know how to take a side

I simply want to have today

And a good chance for tomorrow

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C L Couch

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Photo by Maurice Pehle on Unsplash

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Four Score

(x = space)

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Four Score

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I’m not sure what to say

Today

A day for remembrance

To respect a President

Who said so

And all the boys

And girls

To men and women

And civilians of all kinds

(were children killed?)

Who died

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We can’t seek vengeance

Though we went for victory

And that tragically

Is fair to say

We made a war at home

That wasn’t there

Between the rubber drives

And paper drives

And rationed sugar

That was the war at home

We imprisoned

Our own

Now

Remembrance might

Be for learning, too

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So we are always ready

For the next time

Properly vigilant

With reason

And with passion

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Victory

Deserved

Marshall plans

After

Win

Too high a cost

We all agree

Rebuild the world

After

Bless the nation

Bless the world

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Ready at war, which

Has been the

Burden of

A nation

Seek peace

Every day

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C L Couch

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Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

World War II Memorial, Independence Avenue Southwest

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And All Forgotten Wars

(x = space)

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And All Forgotten Wars

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I hold my head

Look at the mottled

Skin on my legs

And wonder

In addition to

Genetics,

How my father did it

How did he live?

What was happening

On the inside?

He was alone

For so long,

One way or the other

I think he wanted

Peace

From the war

But wouldn’t say so

And eventually

The lack of peace

Took him

Pushed him

Where he did not want

To go

Inside a dark place

That would accept

No light

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C L Couch

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The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Walke (DD-723) underway at sea in Far Eastern waters, 23 November 1953.

by W.L. Fowler, U.S. Navy, from USS Yorktown (CVA-10) – U.S. Navy photo NH 99810, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1622057

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Memorial Day in the USA

(x = space)

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Memorial Day in the USA

(2021)

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It is a holiday in the USA

I suppose the sales are good

And there will be

Shiny fireworks

Reminding us the day means,

Well, something

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There are days like this

Around the world,

As there should be:

Remembrances of those

Who fought and

Died in war

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The wisdom of strategy

And final choices

Is not on the program;

Like the Light Brigade,

There are those

Who served

Because they served

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Remember them,

Because their loss

Is the foundation

For unfought

Wars over silent

Battlefields

That were and are

And will be,

Someday

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C L Couch

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Golden Stars

Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

World War II Memorial, Independence Avenue Southwest, Washington, DC, USA

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It Might Be Magic

(x = space)

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It Might Be Magic

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Do you eschew

Institutions?

I do, anymore

The machines

Made out of people

Don’t blame the

Bureaucrats:

They operate

What others made

A breaking efficiency

In copper and in

Oil replaced by

Split atoms, unleaded

Gasoline and now

Other fuels

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The early price

Was trees

And iron from the earth

Water unafraid

Unplastic skies

That might storm

But otherwise

Were trusted

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Press agents lie

Because they forward

An agenda

They were told

Beyond the news

To promulgate

Or else

Lose their jobs

The heroes and the villains

All are mixed

Or so it seems

Because they’re not

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We are blended

Creatures now,

It’s true

Nothing of persisting,

Edenic status

Has existed for a while

And in our

Reconstituting state

Generations are confused

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Hamas has launched

Three thousand rockets

Into Israel

That fights with

More sophistication

Missiles from planes

And from the ground

More of us

Are good at war, these days

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I read the city paper

In the morning

To find out who has

Shot or otherwise killed

Whom

Or who preaches

On Hyde-Park boxes

That it should rain hate

Should we have our way

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There is an answer,

So many traditions

Espouse

It’s a good thing

And nothing new,

Ancient of ages

But statues will have to

Have their clay feet

Scraped out

Then with something better

Slid into place

And shaped

While the rest of us

The citizens, the voters

Hold the upper parts

The structures of society

In place

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See,

Nihilism is not the answer

Nor to fire agencies

Especially with fire

We can keep

The inefficiencies

Of efficiency,

The inexactness

That comforts us

Knowing the machine

Is never all

But flesh and blood

And synapse

And our loves

Matter more

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Next chapter,

All yours

It might be magic

But it’s not:

It’s mortal hands

Moved by mortal hearts

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C L Couch

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In the Line of Fire

Photo by Christopher Burns on Unsplash

Hay, Australia

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Peace Polar

(x = space)

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Peace Polar

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At any moment now

It is time for the Eid,

One the absence of a moon

Is sighted—you know what I mean,

The new moon

Signing the end of Ramadan

And the start of Eid Al-Fitr

A celebration

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Israeli forces and Hamas

Have been exchanging

Rockets, missiles

Rocks and curses, too

Many have died

And, you know, there is a

Pandemic on

So the celebration must

Be marked by two plagues,

War and the disease

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Holidays and wartime

Go together

In the world

As “I’ll be home for Christmas”

Will tell you

I don’t know the technicalities

Diplomacies

Or lack thereof;

I don’t know if there’s a war

Declared—

It’s happening, anyway

Pray for our western Asian siblings

And send good thoughts

Their way,

And that will not nearly

Be enough

Though they should happen,

Anyway

But something else

Something more

Must transpire

Write about it, tell the stories

Act for peace

Keep planting the poles

Live peaceably

Not with weakness

But with strength

Peace, like love, takes

Muscles of all kinds

And actions

Action-heroes, even

Remembering

The brain, the will

Have muscles, too

The strongest, in fact

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Run the race for peace

And be kind for races, too

These are

The greater challenges

Beside these,

War is easy

(the picking-up is hard)

So, yes, pray for peace

Then act for peace

In the gentlest, strongest way

That you know how

Concretize the steps you take

The talk, the meals, loving

Your neighbors

So that what works

Might be taken again

In hope

Even (especially) when it’s hard

There will be fruition,

Promise

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C L Couch

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Shigar Valley, Skardu, Pakistan

Photo by Ijaz Rafi on Unsplash

[nearly new moon]

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Proportional Response

(x = space)

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Proportional Response

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It’s an eye for eye

Without, we hope,

Everyone going blind

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But then the blind we have,

Over-sensate in four ways,

Might have to lead

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The only ones who know

How to have sight

Without the eyes

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C L Couch

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https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-u-carries-airstrike-against-233431848.html

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By Airman 1st Class Chad Warren – US Air Force Public Affairs [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7377988

A flight of F-15C Eagles from the flies during a solar eclipse in Okinawa July 22, 2009.

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