Saturday, March 1, 2025

putting on our costumes

we learn
early as children that a costume
matters.
Halloween
brings
out the hero or villain
in all of us.
the monster,
or saint.
and we continue
on
in our adult years
with a golden suit
when singing
a song,
maybe 
a holy robe
to bless the flock,
a camouflage outfit
in jungle
green.
a cop in blue,
a sailor in white,
a lawyer with a red
tie,
a farmer in overalls,
the executioner in
black.
but we trick or treat
during the day,
though
occasionally at night.

three sides to every war

we can
extend this war with another
hundred
billion
dollars or so,
more tanks,
more missiles,
more guns and bombs,
or we could say,
no more.
let's make a deal.
have peace.
give in,
give up. stop killing
each other,
but there's
always at least
three sides
to every story,
to every war.

redacted again and again

we want
a deeper meaning.
the true
but
sequestered reasons,
hidden
from view.
we want names
and places,
dates
and times.
we want to cut through
the red tape,
through the mystery
of it all.
we want the hidden
files,
the redacted
type revealed.
we want to know
it all.
something, anything,
we're so tired
of fraud.