Written for: Poets and Storytellers United
Weekly Scribblings #32: I Am Explaining A Few Things (posted by Sanaa)
Your Challenge today is to write inspired by the title of Neruda’s poem. Feel free to address the current world situation, or perhaps delve into a memory of your own. Challenge the reader, surprise us with humor and wit, go solemn and dark or perhaps tender and romantic. The possibilities are endless!
There are always wars
purportedly for peace.
My father was in World War II,
the Great war of
the Greatest generation.
My husband was in
the Viet Nam war, the one
government officials deemed
'conflict'. If blood is shed
on both sides, it is not
a conflict.
Soldiers come home broken
physically and mentally.
Some are homeless. Where
are those people who wanted
their glory vicariously?
Where is the help?
We carry scars of September 11th.
We mourn the dead in an arena
of fear. Now we fight an unseen
enemy–unpredictable disease. Guns
and soldiers are useless here.
Pandemic rages and ravages
without end in sight. If this
war on disease ends, we may
finally treasure health above all.
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Well said! 🧡 💛 💚
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Thanks, Eugenia!
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The scars of war never dissipate. Like you my husband served in Vietnam 1967-68, never quite the same man who left us (I was six months pregnant with #4) and though I still love him with all my might, our marriage did not survive. Thankful to call him my greatest friend today.
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I met my husband after he had been back for some time. He is in the first stages of dementia, and I know he was exposed to Agent Orange, but he always refused to go to the VA.
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Your words are powerful.
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Thanks, Rev.
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A profound write Sara. May we receive the mercy of release frim the clutches if this pandemic soon
Happy you dropped by to read mine
Much💝love
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Thanks, Gillena, and good health to you.
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We’ve all been drafted in this war, but some try to dodge their responsibilities by being divas about wearing masks. It floors me that such a simple thing is so controversial.
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Agreed!
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This is utterly and beautifully poignant, Sara! Thank you so much for writing to the prompt. 💝
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Thanks, Sanaa! It is always a pleasure.
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Returning your visit to 1sojournal. Left a reply there for you, hope you return. Really like what you’ve written here. To some extent, the pandemic is a war in which we are all combatants, fighting to preserve our way of life and of knowing. We are being changed whether we know that or not. Can only hope that we allow for the empathy toward one another that you show in your words.
Elizabeth
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Thanks, Elizabeth!
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