Right or Left

What can be said about War and Peace

that has not been 

proposed

outside of either 

wedlock-

Or must we choose sides,

such as above or below,

better than, worse than

History-

Have we learned

details, science, faith-

what can be known

from ones experience-

Does wisdom teach 

or listen

or climb

circumstantial scaffolding-

Does unfolding end with

unraveling

undoing

chaos

and atrophy

is that peace-

or pieces 

of ashen passion-

And what we loved

universally

was the desire

for either 

or-

hanging by a thread

that became a noose-

And then, there were no words

after

death do us part

ways...

Artwork by Ilya Repin (1844-1930), 'Barge Haulers on the Volga' c 1870 Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. 

Blue blood

The heaviest ink
a writer bleeds
are a Mothers Eulogy
and the vows
etched for Matrimony.

These marks,
deeper than tattoo
annotate and commemorate
an expression of Life and Risk
All
Love to Lose.

We may say
nothing aloud
that sounds like what
It is
to trap butterflies
with a lariat.


Artwork credited by W.T. Benda, cover of Life magazine September 1923 in [Public domain].