What we did

What We Did

in peacetime.

waited

for one of our gods

to absolve us

for all we did.

the long night

between confession

and absolution

watched,

in darkness,

as bomb-light traced

the trajectory of collapse

the endless cries

of children

in the stutter of gunfire,

if absolution came,

we did not hear

everyone with the greatest right

to speak

was dead

in peacetime,

in the view from afar,

nothing is real

until it happens to you

stick and stone,

bomb on bone

sleep

that never comes

at peace, they said,

seventy years

at peace,

there has been,

in seventy years,

no war.