In a Time of Endless Wars
POETRY FORMAT, 23 Apr 2018
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service
I write for the men of a thousand years hence—
and the women—and their healthy children.
And…, if you are suffering, if night is day
and day is night,
I will drink the cup of despair with you,
for I have tasted of despair.
But…, if you are happy and wise,
may my words animate your limbs;
may you dance—as I danced
in the spring of my days.
In your dancing, my words will come again
even as they came from the Old Ones long ago
to fill my cup with dreams and desire.
From the grunting in the caves,
from the maker of the paintings
and the reaping praise of critics–
these words, crystallized over lifetimes,
will come again….
Outside, howling winds; inside, warming fire.
And if you have kept the flame of comradeship,
in spite of arrows and explosions;
if you have nurtured the flame–
I send salutations from a blood-drenched past.
But…,
if blood has drowned your best
and you find these strange and faded words—
on microchips, or chipped on cavernous walls–
then you have fulfilled the worst of us;
then: drink these words with gall!
May these words burn and die in your guts
for they and you have dwelt enough in darkness.
Enmity and fear will have hollowed us all.
Let the words burn and fester like a dying star.
Then, my son, my daughter: you will confirm
we could not shake free
of the chrysalis of war, entombing us,
still-birthing you.…
Never forgive us!
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Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS (Transcend Media Service), The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch. He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons. Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 23 Apr 2018.
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