This isn’t really a poem – it’s just thoughts, notes about what's on the news. But I find thoughts come more easily if I think of them as a poem.

Would you go?

Your life at the cusp

The age when all feels strange

Estranged

Nowhere is home

And voices cry

They call for help

Maybe I’d go too

Even I feel the pull

It’s not my fight 

But there’s so much need

Children being killed

People fleeing, desperate.

One small push

A voice close in my ear

And I’d go.

So many have gone to war

Our history is all wars

We don’t celebrate the ones who

Stood by and waited

Stayed safe.

Just to do something

Anything, not nothing.

Once you’re there

No need to think

Ever again

Everything falls away

Only one point of focus

Amid the new friendships

They all have a light in their eyes

They’ve all found their way

This is what they were born for.

Wouldn’t you go?  

To fight for right?

Your ancestors sprawled in

That muddy ditch

While shells fell and fell and fell

Wouldn’t you do the same?

For liberty, if not for life.

And a chance – maybe –

To be on the winning side.