Conveniently Rational Munitions

Conveniently Rational Munitions

Copyright 2021 Don Ray.  Feel free to print and share.

The world, unremittingly harsh.

The world, unchangeable.

The world, this world, an expression of the human spirit.

The human spirit, formed in response to the harshness of this world.

The endless cycle, harshness begetting cruelty, 

survival demanding indifference.

Excuses abound for our sins.

Reasons aplenty explain our self-absorption.

The endless cycle,

a parent and necessity and social norms driving our individual role

in the great churning engine, 

the malevolent engine,

the malignant engine

of personal and societal

cause and effect

excusing, always excusing, our actions and inactions.

We, the individual molecules 

in the fuel driving the engine,

our profit and pleasure,

our security and safety,

the molecular characteristics

sustaining the ignition of the fuel

to drive the next cycle 

of fear turned to violence,

pain turned to vengeance.

All natural,

all predictable,

all so conveniently rational,

the mines and munitions,

the purchases and profligacy.

Yet against all reason and rationality,

the engine is throttled,

the cycle restrained.

A response tempered,

a temper held,

a hold become embrace…

Something unbefitting the ethos of profit and patriotism,

something resisting the irresistible compulsion of mob and marketers,

a spark of compassion,

a flicker of forgiveness…...

The engine runs as it always has,

but not without limit,

not uncontrollably.

A cheek turned,

a debt forgotten,

a small meal shared…..

and the great churning engine is revealed to produce 

more than its fetid exhaust of wars and vendettas and consumption.

The cycle produces something that escapes the cycle,

something enduring after the machine of this world has passed,

something of Beauty,

something of Light,

something of the Love that set the machine in motion.

Copyright 202 Don Ray.  feel free to print and share.