war stories

How strange is it?
To know
Without seeing
To talk
Without speaking
And to hear
in silence?

How strange
To devote
To trust
To hope
In that silence
In that void.

Children are told
Their war stories.
How Granpa fought
In Midway
Normandy
And Kursk.
"They still have his leg,
The Krauts!"

They visit him on Sundays
But it is never he
Never Granpa
Who spins the thread
Unwinds the yarn
Or fastens the quilt.
All he ever tells them
Those children
Not yet aware
Of things like
Complexion
Creed
Or
Country borders -
All he only whispers
Is of the sandman
Who grants them dreams
When they've been good
And the bogeyman
Who plagues their nightmares
Or even
Keeps them awake
Frightened and fearful
When they've been bad.

Only when they've been bad
Does the bogeyman
Come for them.

But Sunday night
When Granpa,
Alone,
But living as full
As one can
Alone,
Goes to bed,
It is he
Who dreams
Who remembers
Why
And how they come.

He will never forget
And in the still of night
He will never
Be alone.

But how strange
Is it?
To believe
In the veracity of dreams?

How strange is it?
To just for the moment
While you're still young
And the world is open
Inviting
Loving
Warm -
How strange is it
To take the hand of beautiful lies?
And drift to sleep
With beautiful
Loving
Hope?

The grandchildren
Are happy.
And they know
That Granpa
Is happy.
Because Granpa is good
He will be loved.
And in peace
They sleep.

How strange it is.

How strange
That now
More than ever
Granpa can hear
Can see
Can speak
And can be heard, seen, spoken to -
How it's all now
More real than ever
When he lives in those dreams
In his grandchildren
In their innocent love.

And yet
Nothing in Normandy
In Midway
In Kursk
Was ever so real.

And nothing
To me
Is ever so real.

I am of him
They are of me
All of us
Of all of us.

And it is within them
It is within us.

It is within me
That I may sleep
That I may dream.

Normandy
In me
Never me
In Normandy.

Midway
In they
Never they
In Midway.

Kursk
In us
Never us
In Kursk.

And God
And his kingdom
In us
Never us
In God
Or his kingdom.

Yes
The kingdom
Of God
Is within you.

Yes
The kingdom
Of God
Is within us.

And yes
The kingdom
Of God
Is within me.

And how strange
That is.