The Gift of Daffodils

We bought daffodils for the deer,

planting them with love along the edge

of the garden, around the old hostas,

in late fall, a spring surprise for them, yet

hardly a fit gift for deer who don’t like daffodils,

just the hostas and lilies and phlox in my garden,

bountiful meals. But my wife insisted

and the daffodils came up, yellow ones

bright against the green of our lawn, came up

and dropped their flowers, stalks and leaves

turned brown long before the hostas grew

and the deer returned to eat their fill,

our mornings filled with the nibbled stalks

of hostas, lilies, and phlox growing tall.

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And the Archangel Michael blew loud

the trumpet of God, to raise first the dead in the end times;

and the children of Israel encircling Jericho, seven days,

the rams’ horns blaring and the walls came tumbling down.

But I have no such Biblical aspirations, content to play my old horn,

a joyful noise from youthful days, some old songs and hymns,

something new, not played well, but well enough, perhaps,

to calm my own savage breast in these days of chaos and trouble,

restless and weary, finding again the peace of music still playing

in a heart and soul in need of soothing, in need of peace.

Surviving

We survived the Cold War, the arms race,

enough to wipe out both sides, us and them,

huddled under our desks, tucked into little balls,

scant protection for what we knew of war;

 

we survived Vietnam, mostly, the war brought

live into our living rooms in black and white,

the protests and folk songs decrying the war,

the man, the establishment, us against them,

the walkouts, the sit-ins, and the soldiers

returning home, disgraced, demonized, broken;

 

we survived 9/11, the towers falling, death

and destruction on US soil, downtown NYC,

arm in arm united against foreign aggression,

unfamiliar terrain and the bombs and blasts

tearing us apart, us – again – vs them –

 again - a new war, a forever war.

 

And now we wonder, afraid, them against us,

a new enemy, a people attacked fighting for their lives,

self-protection, fighting back, surviving an undeclared war,

one man and his image, his greed, power hungry,

driving us back into war, back into ruin,

a country, a people, a constitution, ignored.

 

But we will survive, we always do, rising up,

united again against this new foe, not a desert country,

but the men who would take us there, a formidable

enemy, for we face our own government, face ourselves,

our safety nets now torn and broken, we the people

divided, but this, too, we will survive, and perhaps,

just maybe, be made stronger in our persistence, surviving.

Today

Today of this year, this time

of dissent and division and darkness,

we seek the Peace of democracy,

a Constitution that binds us

not just to these United States,

but to each other and to humanity,

the global community once but a dream.