NaPM April 10th 2019

[Richard]

Then and Now and Tomorrow

They almost perfected war
one hundred years ago,
and after re-manning no-man's land,
seeds were planted,
fertilized by the dead,
only to sprout a justifiable war.

We will be experts of some barbarism
one hundred years from now,
hindsight a sniper's scope,
our wounds nursing soil,
still hungry for young soldiers,
crying to their mothers,
gone deaf with grief.

My truest comfort found in nights
when it could be one hundred seconds
or one hundred minutes-
time distorted by sounds
only two lovers can make,
two working against hundreds of other things;
bodies eventually buried together,
but their spring bloom also inevitable.