This poem was inspired by a friend, a confirmed liberal, who is considering buying a gun to prepare for a potential civil war. This poem is a meditation on such epic choices. Gandhi viewed cowardice and fear as the real enemy. People should not hide behind nonviolence so-called. People should confront their fear of harm to self and their own. People should confront the tension between the beast in ourselves and the best in ourselves. As Gandhi said, “There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-violent, but there is none for a coward.” The common thread is courageous skin in the game. May we awe choose, courage over cowardice…
Arming Up, Surrendering to What?
“They will beat their swords into plowshares…” –Isaiah 2:4
“Or to take arms against a sea of troubles…” –from Hamlet
How might
Ponder US
Perhaps approaching
A civil war
Perhaps a poaching
What weigh
To fight
Farming humanity
Or farming out humanity
As feeleds burn
An affinity of life
An infinity of death
What is it we’ed due
In hour relationship
With someone ails
Axing won an other
Beyond belief
Canon fodder
Or plowshares fodder
To be or not to be
To kill or be killed
What is it, a boat
Buy what kin ship to sail
Regardless of the wins
Or losses
Brought a bout
By grave choices
By awe standards
With skin in the game
