By Craig Kirchner
I release you, moral underpinnings,
you all have a journey in front of you.
Some will leave quietly like summer winds,
others will be packed in boxes and shipped,
some I’m sure will go underground.
All will be in mourning
of what was a wondrous coming together,
spelled out in words that allowed for growing,
held for centuries until they somehow
could no longer be understood.
History will say you should have stayed
and fought, not realising the struggle
is not foreign or about winning,
it is about the being, the empathy,
caring for the lesser.
This is not a battle fought, or a flag flown.
That war was already won.
Fathers and grandfathers died to rid
the planet of leaders and demagoguery
that came to power on the rhetoric of hatred and fear,
and yes in my lifetime the mantra was,
Never again in my lifetime.
My lifetime is almost over,
and despite history, it’s back.
I wish I could be travelling with you,
instead of crying about your departure,
but I am too old for such a journey…
Craig Kirchner thinks of poetry as hobo art, loves storytelling. He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart, and has a book of poetry, Roomful of Navels.
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