Fuel for War

Not Yet the Requisite Courage

From the commonsense perspective of reason
pacifism seems indefensible,
easily dismissed with "surely you'd have the decency to
kill to protect your family."
But can it be denied that spirit giants past and present
(changing societies if not civilizations)
whose values and teachings we claim to live by
were confirmed pacifists?
If we but remember Buddha and Jesus, Gandhi and King,
we might at least in honesty admit we haven't yet the requisite courage
to rise to the heights of the mountain they reached,
of the peacemaking they lived and preached.

Two Views On A Lady

A nation of immigrants salutes itself,
each band battling upward towards the Dream
after a brilliant torch greeting.
What stirring in soul, singing from heart
as eyes spied from boats an apparition in the distance
holding high in welcome freedom’s flame!

Chained black hands didn’t wave when their ships
pulled in,
and red feet revering Earth as mother
were no match for Manifest Destiny with its big guns
and big god
and inclination far more for greed than for reverence.

How is it those of color
have been more burned than warmed by her flame?

But We All Must Protest

Not only his vision but his courage.
I reread Beyond Vietnam, King’s justification
for expanding the movement from civil rights to antiwar.
Cries from all quarters about unwise and untimely
once again were insufficient against the strength of his
conscience.
His words spoken in 1967, alas, ring urgent today
as America’s tanks and missiles poise for destruction.
“Every man of humane convictions must decide on the
protest that best suits his convictions,
but we all must protest.”
May we remember, Martin, in this time when we need it
not only your vision but your courage.

January 1991

Would That They Paid Heed

“Will the war still be when I grow up?”
I quickly reassured my 6-year-old it’ll be over long before then,
and besides it’s far, far away and all of us are safe.
This will bear repeating for her fear is real.
It gets me somberly thinking
about 6-year-olds in Israel putting on frightening gas masks
as sirens make each night a nightmare,
and about terrified 6-year-old Iraqis
under unrelenting bombardment and bereavement
past my capacity to conceive.
The fear my heart couldn’t tell my daughter
is that after this insane war is over
there’s likely the way to world goes insanely to be another.
Would that those scheming for war paid heed to 6-year-olds.

February 1991