“demons” a poem for #NaPoWriMo 04/04/2014

reflecting on the latest shooting at Ft. Hood, for #NaPoWriMo…

 

what are these terrifying demons
that live within us?
this
damnable suffering
this
pain
that spills over into our hands
and runs angrily
deadly
down the barrel of a gun

ripping bodies
rending souls
seething malice
heartfelt anguish

how many names do these demons have?
victims
also have names

one does not
domesticate these demons
one does not
harness a demon
for gain
without paying a price

lead us not into temptation
nor the arms of a demon
but
deliver us from the price

04/04/2014

 

I have my own demons, as we each carry them through our lives, leaving some behind and finding new ones all along the way. The latest shooting at Ft. Hood put a shadow over me, yesterday. It stirred my demons. We like the heroes in our comic books and stories to destroy whole armies, to fight and kill, to slaughter the bad guys and gals by the dozen, and to face down all the enemies they find… but in real life we are much more fragile than the characters of our fantasies. I pray that we take ever more seriously the price we pay for sending our women and men into conflict after conflict, and that we take seriously the price they pay. The men and women who serve us are too great a treasure to take for granted or to leave to the demons.

Yesterday, just to show my age, it was John Denver who helped sing my demons back into the shadows.

AMDG, Todd