War

“War – what is it good for? Absolutely nothing...” – Edwin Starr

Last fall, I took part in the World March for Peace and Non-violence
And I really thought it was one of the finer things I could do in this life

But leading up to, during, and after the march, I experienced despair
The like of which I don’t recall dealing with at any time before in my life

Perhaps it comes of getting old and coming to terms with the frailty
Of human nature, and human beings, and being nearer to the end of my life

And the knowledge that peace is as out of reach today as it was forty years ago
When I marched then, protested and got arrested and sat in, before in my life

Oh – I pulled out of those doldrums – it was that or spiral down to the darkness
But there is a jaded part of me that has given up on peace like never before in my life


Me, who was sure we would prevail, we would be turning swords to ploughshares
And spears into pruning hooks; I despair as I see those yellow ribbons, now in my life

They hang on every tree and light-standard on the route to the base to welcome home
The boys from the base, but they are wilting and so is my hope at this time in my life


Another one, just deployed, in Afghanistan only one day, came back in a flag-draped box
Where is the sense in that, I wonder, back to square one, marching no more in this life.

S.E.Ingraham©