Holding On

Photo by Lee Lindsey McKinney

Fear took its best shot –

though it feels like its worst –

bombing, shooting, death-dealing

in dramatic fashion, driven

by forces beyond our comprehension.

Loss of life was intended

to be but the beginning.

The collateral affects are

an equally important objective:

difference, division;

all colluding to pull us

into hate's vortex,

shrinking us into "others"

equally bent on violent retribution.

Vengeance, as penultimate

exercise of power allowing fear

to set aside all meaningful similarities

and connections in order

to somehow even the score,

cannot and will not bring about

its own demise.

By its very nature, war ensures

both victor and vanquished

have the seed of violence

buried in their gut, and no amount

of neglect or freezing cold

or searing heat or negotiated armistice

will prevent its growth.

Our only hope is to crawl back

to the road leading

to a place called Healing;

an honest road of plowing

war's field until we reach

the deepest pain and then

begin the convalescent process,

rejecting escalation, trading

armistice's awkward pause

for peace in a deeper groove,

reconnecting human to human,

yielding to a love that listens,

clinging to a hope reminding us

we have to find a way

to keep ourselves in this together,

or we will find ourselves

out of it, apart.

© 2015 Todd Jenkins