YOU SPEND YOUR LIFE AVOIDING CONFLICT

 

“You spend your life avoiding conflict”

My new therapist has just said

I suppose he has a point, because visiting

War zones fills me with dread

VETERAN PAYMENTS

 

During intense hostilities

All service men and women

Pay with their lives ultimately

Some will pay all at once

But most make payments

Over their entire lifetime

THEY MUST CROSS THE BARREN EARTH

 

They must cross the barren earth

Where once wheat and barley grew

A land where nothing lives in the mud

And an eerie silence hugs the land

Until the chattering of machine gun fire

Breaks the quietness of the morning

And hails of bullets cut like a scythe

Until like wheat and barley they fall