My contribution to the poetry decorating the site recently...
The first is an outcome of the dialogue on military action against Syria. The second one, below the break, is, well, just a poem.
The War Zone
There is a boundary at the edge
Of the war zone.
On the ground,
Like a child’s toy used once and discarded,
A broken bird whispers
In secret code:
Forbidden To Enter.
To proceed further means
Suffering and death,
And so we turn away –
But the battle god must be fed.
Run, scatter, let the slow serve
As reckoning, worthy
Or not.
We live, and while we live
We rejoice, we are not diminished,
We measure our losses only by the glassful.
Meanwhile, the fool nods and stumbles,
And sits down beside the vacant throne.
We laugh and quietly hope
Our eyes never meet.
Children of Time
What is
The thin cord that ties us
To the beyond, to
The unseen and the unknown, that both
Beckon and stir our thoughts sideways
Toward the blind spot
Of our hearts?
We are trapped in time,
Parents of twin children
Who are reluctant to grow up
And leave the nest.
Regret can be an angry, moody sort,
Petulant and demanding over
Favors unreceived.
Doubt, on the other hand,
Is the quiet one who stays
In the shadows, but
Emerges with the quiet solitude.
The path is never beyond
The next moment.
Perhaps if we are sufficiently boring
Or old-fashioned, they will step
Into their own futures, and we will find within
The given instant
A certain satisfaction
Of a job well done.