two short war poems

[nostamj]

some of you know i'm going through major changes... leaving a decade of employment and venturing into setting up my own business. scary and exciting. plunging into creative work again has opened some long-blocked pathways. the first poem was spurred by Plaid Adder's home page article and the hideous news from Afghanistan (aka the 'war' Bush* forgot about). the second, well... the daily news(?)

15 children

so fifteen children
have been slaughtered by soldiers–
another ‘regret’

ours are all at home
thousands of miles from Main Street–
easy to forget.

lost treasure

they see the coffins
that fly in only at night–
that is where they are

empty chairs, new grief.
purple hearts trump silver bells–
who will hang the star?

[G_j]

1. Thanks.... n/t

[nostamj]

2. thank you

i know that GD is all wrong for poetry

but the Lounge is too 'light'

maybe i'll repost it in the Meeting Room...

tomorrow.

(at least one person read them)

[nostamj]

3. note to self:

posting poems in GD is DUMB

no 'dean' in subject,
nothing to attack in that--
it drops like a stone.

[lostnfound]

4. Keep it up Nostamj

I like them.

[nostamj]

5. almost fell off the chair

seeing this thread this AM! was sure it was sleeping soundly on page 9 by now. thanks.

[Plaid Adder]

6. Like them both, nostamj

and it's nice to know someone's reading the column.

The fact that the total has gone to 15 is chilling to me for entirely arbitrary reasons, which I wrote about in my livejournal:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/plaidder/34056.html

After the incident I talk about in that entry, one of the characters who 'witnessed' it writes a song about the experience with the refrain "fifteen of Idair's children are going home tonight." The people who die in that incident aren't children, but the title of your first one still has this weird resonance in my head.

Good luck on your venture,

The Plaid Adder

[soup]

7. Trying to remember the last whole day

without tears.

It isn't this one.

Beautiful work, nostamj.

I start again at 0.

[nostamj]

8. thanks soup (but I'm sorry to be a downer)

just don't have many puppy dogs and rainbows in me these days...