Posted on

Realpolitik

Gate to Seoul

Hungary in ‘56,
Czechoslovakia in ’68!
Soon another region
Will re-live this fate.
Through the people protest for freedom,
Against the power of despotism,
And show the world the horror,
Of totalitarianism,
When violence comes- they are on their own,
No help forthcoming beyond a few words of care.
The cost of intervention deemed,
Too costly for us to bear.
Tomorrow when the tanks roll in,
The peoples’ vulnerability made clear,
The State will crush the people,
Suppressing ideas they hold dear.
In doing so the State itself,
Will seal its long-term doom,
For liberty rises from the ashes,
Like the phases of the moon.
People who yearn for freedom,
Cannot perpetually be denied.
History is filled with the grave-markers,
Of every petty tyrant who has tried.
But in the valley of the shadow,
Before each person turns to dust,
The strong do what they will,
The weak will suffer what they must.

Posted on

Virtue in War

Gate to Seoul

Innocence is the first casualty of war,
Truth itself flees long before.
The virtues largely all the same,
Withering away in the pyre’s flame.

Far-seeing Prudence sunders and frays,
Under the chaos of humanity’s violent phase.
Temperance becomes gluttony all the more,
Thinking victory comes through blood and gore.
Fortitude last longest but will eventually break,
As each person hits the limit of what they can take.
At start Justice is pursued and sometimes in the end found,
The in-between will justify starting the next round.
Blood and rage drive Purity away,
While Charity waits for a better day.
For a while Diligence is dutifully true,
But as the pressure builds, it erodes too.
Patience wears thin, then shatters apart,
As rage drives Kindness out of human hearts.
Humility cloaked in reverent modesty,
Withers as survival empowers “the me”.

Mankind may clash for honor or greed,
Fear itself, or religious creed.
In the rush to action much is lost,
Few politicians project the cost.
People are seldom surprised when wars begin,
Yet always shocked at what is gone in the end.

Posted on

Unaccompanied


He knows now.
There will be
No more dates.

No anniversaries,
Weddings, babies,
Looking forward.

But he missed
Uncalendared,
Mundane things.

A two-stroke
Jerking to life
Under biceps.

When sweat
Was life salt,
Not metal sick.

Finding strength
Gone, grieves
Capability.

Another cuts
Grass, carries
The burdens.

Decades ago,
He bore palls,
For his father.

Unaccompanied,
He will go by
gurney to fire.

Ashes to urn.
While another
Holds his wife.

Nothing left
To borrow,
But minutes.

Posted on

Of Forges and Fates

National Cathedral

War is the crucible of humanity

Where heat and pressure burn away the dross

Transforming society.

 

The experience might forge a new society

As a rare and valuable alloy

Useful in its blending of elements;

Or,

It might just as easily,

Leave a brittle weakened state,

With poor metal in its spine,

Ready to shatter under the pressure,

Fragmenting in to shards of itself.

 

The nation that welds its various components,

Into one blade upon the forge,

Under the hammer beats of history,

Through in the fire of tribulation,

Tempered with a quench

Of Humanity and Humility,

Shall always win the day.

Posted on

Dissonance

In concentric rows they sit,

stand, and display their wildfire

red or tsunami blue plumage

strutting and posing, posturing, like so many

magnificent birds

in heat.

 

“Look at me!” “Look at me!” They beg

through veneered smiles. Professing truths

with fork-ed tongues.

Forming committees to form

committees. Planning meetings to plan

meetings. Conducting hearings

about the hearings. All-the-while, throwing

shade with sideways glances

as they stamp

out Progress.

 

The Earth spins, the seasons pass,

crops and wars come

and go

like ant-hill dictators.

Currency, their Commander,

Personal Gain,

their Objective.

 

The Five Hundred and Thirty-Eight—

this is their Thermopylae.

A Spartan, each they see,

beholding the mirror.

The paper piles high

in the wake

of Battle.

 

Behold the great deeds.

Proclaim the accomplishments.

Praise the mighty as they

trample

each

other.