War Gives Showman | Lynn White

The Taste of War

Peace is more
than the absence of war
though that would be a start.
But the dissolving of boundaries
constructed by humans 
to cordon off one from the other
must follow
so there is no need
to shout across the divide
in our different languages.

Only then can we whisper
and hug our way to peace.

What we have now
still tastes like war
to me.

First published in Brave and Reckless, January 11 2022

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When The Gun Gives Up It’s Power

It needs strength to break new ground
when it’s as hard and solid as
silence.
Or
so I thought.

It needs strength to breakthrough,
to smash the mould of war
and peace.
Or so I thought.

But just suppose,
the ground gives up its power,
the gun refuses to fire
and they allow the flowers
to break,
bright
delicate
blooming
flourishing fragile.

Ready to open up
through the self shattered soil, 
melting the frozen silence 
to make a space
in the barrel
of the gun
an opening
for a warmth,
that will shatter
the ice,
heal the wounds,
stop the war.

I think so.

First published in Otherwise Engaged, December 2022

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When Psychopath Meets Showman

When a violent psycho with overwhelming power
meets a deluded showman with a hero complex
it’s looking bleak for those caught in between.
Those displaced from their homes,
displaced from their lives,
those losing their lives.
those losing the life
they expected to live,
more and more of them,
a stream without end
as the show goes on.

First published in Transformative Power of Art Journal, War and Peace, Summer 2022

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©2023 Lynn White
All rights reserved

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