We're all at war inside
We’re all at war inside.
Mostly undeclared.
What will win
Between what we want and what we loathe?
A thick fog smiles:
Remorse abutting devilish hope
My war looks like peace
And shatters from within.
Blackened embers crawl up clay lungs
Burning lips with muted truth
A cool entry
Warming his ears
His war sounds like the ocean
High tide crashes with vigor
Recycling his lineage until
Today and tomorrow and yesterday are one
Sinking tombstones
Bodies floating, nothing inside
How we arrived,
Stripped from bed yet asleep to reality…
Maybe it was the hospital sirens first.
Pulsing, elevated, heart-rate climbing
Before the first impulse to fight.
A battle starts here
In this capsule, our skin,
A pill we swallow for pain
What kind of ritual will you hold
When you go to war with yourself?
And when you return,
Who’s left?