Poem for Today

Finished...

In this short life of meetings,
With the coming,

And then the always going of travel,
Among restless and teasing wanderings,

We embrace.

It is you that always separates first,

Your eyes swing away,

Gazing behind me quietly.

It is your kiss that stops first,

The small tension,

Flickering in your arms,

It tells me you are finished.

So, after the flow of all this life,

After all the things I have done and seen,

I fear nothing,

Except -

Near the end of each day,

Then I begin to think,

Everything may be ended by your words.

December 2009

Back in the USA

Back in the good old homeland!

Cold, and a bit tired on my arrival. Will be doing some traveling here, and will give my impressions as I perambulate across the USA.

When I was in the immigration hall at the airport a small altercation broke out between an older man and a younger one and his family. It resulted in the older man being pushed to the ground...It was all a very bizarre sight...Strange thing to see on my arrival back, and not even 10 minutes on US soil. I found the event disturbing...partly because it resulted from a sad misunderstanding, and also because it involved people of different races, and ages.

I do feel that in the USA we sometimes take things, (such as presumed slights) too personally. I see this even when I drive on the highways in the USA.... Things seem to come down to a "me vs. you" zero-sum game.
I see this also in the false divisions among our people that the talk show pundits attempt to create.

We are more alike in our country than different. I have felt that in the service. But, sometimes,the USA definitely seems more hostile than being on a deployment.

Poem for Today

Hurt

I think of the scar on your wrist,

How you quietly hide it sometimes.

It’s an old injury,

Floating like a soft island on the smoothness of your skin.

Sometimes I try to take in my lips,

Encompassing it and making it mine,

Wishing I could be your balm.

But that is only the hurt I can see.

I am lost in describing you,

I think about the other scars you have,

The ones I will never know.