Wars Are Won Daily
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Wars are won every day
The battlefield is within
Good stands on top
but we are forced by gravity
to go down toward the bottom.
There to see if not to touch
to know if not to countenance
suspect but maybe not
or execute a punishment
or maybe take a pound or two
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Wars are won daily
but only in the conscious state
please let me clarify
there can be no misunderstanding
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One form of consciousness
upon the field
knife sharp
blade riddled
blood and guts
That sort of thing
It leaves us books on just how
meaningful war is
Life too has meaning
but you who do not know
what war is
are just minuses in our world
You will never know the fellow-feeling
or the intimate surrender of
our innards to each other
So close
so close
no closer
still
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Then there’s
the counterfeit
the lifeless flaccid
milquetoastish
Yea rancid
suicidal vital life
lives in the very dock of
our normality
+
Yes
there’s
a binary for you
far-fetched and terrible
all wizened leather-skinned
emblazoned with retirement ribbons
phony
thick as
as
I have it wrong
oh wrong
how wrong am I
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Behind all war
there is
is
this core of
groomed poison
this dressed lethality
this recondite accounting
this third hand fellow-feeling
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“Give them a war that
they can watch in peace
Something pervasive yet confusing
touch everything
Then nod
and say it’s not
as simple as you think”
