The War Years

by CWK

I gaze back, back, back
over the weary war years,
and I would cry if I had tears.
"Did you see the fortress sacked?"
Yes, but the sanctuary stands intact.
"How long since?" I lost track.
"How cruel! How vile! How fierce!"
Yes, but regret was the bitterest attack;
and bitter still the taste is.

"What regret? What for?"

I could have done more.

More than 1000 moons I have hasted,
like a vapor, and many have been lost, wasted.

"I guess the past is all that matters."
No friend -- what we were,
we were; what we will be,
we will be together, everlastingly.
It's not over, even when it's over.
So, come to war,
and we will fight together;
side by side, we will fight the better.

"Who else, then, besides us two?"
None, friend, but me and you.
"What may come? What fear? What foe?"
None, friend, but those we already know.

"This is not what we made --"
but, this is what we were made for
"... not how we planned our days --"
but what this day was planned for.
"... not what we prayed --"
but this is what we prayed for.
"We may fall to the earth --"
but that's where seeds will grow sure.
It's not over, even when it's over.

"I hear we create
whatever it is we fear."
Most men, then, fear hate,
but we know better
than to foolish fears debate.
If they come now, they come too late.
So, what what we to fear, then?
So, what have we to fear when
there's no outcome to await.

"I see the apocalypse assembling,
with men piled in rows, trembling
for the taste of a final victory."
I see through future history:
I see a mass of cowards cultured
in lies; their only culture is for war.
"When we are gone, in latter years..."
Gone? We're right here --
"... I guess,  they'll call it evolution."
They forgot about the revolution.
"Is this is the end; the end of all this?"
No, this is the first last stand of the resistance:
the tragic first chapter
of a happily ever after.
First comes the cut, then the kiss.
It's not over, even when it's over.
Stand not by, remiss. Enlist.
Let's cancel the apocalypse.

It's not over, even when it's over.
So, come to war,
and we will fight together;
side by side, we will fight the better.

"We will fight together;
side by side, we will fight the better.
Here my feet stand, waiting,
to dive from the shoreless shoal.
I'm tired of talk, procrastinating.
Now, at last? At last! Behold."