Wars

Conventional wisdom is that Wars don't
have a dramatic impact on America,
I suppose that view partly depends on how one defines dramatic,
I suggest that conventional wisdom could use a good slap upside the head

Naked and half frozen, emaciated with hunger and squalid with dirt,
the pristine, erotic visions of the Lady of Poverty are increasingly common

The cultural function of high importance is to strike you blind

How a conflict influences people,
depends upon whether it is ritual or examination,
or considered as pure or as applied,
its relevance to a general culture will depend,
on how well, and how seriously, it is taught and learned

Like torn flesh, reputations can also need fixing,
it might seem a natural fit in many ways,
but war and peace have a long and uneasy relationship

War gives pleasure, and it provokes thought,
it is both sensory and intellectual;
it intersects with history and with culture,
nothing could be more central to life

Poppycock

Peace though, is uncertain,
it experiments with new order or new paradigms,
it can be seen and heard,
experienced and discussed,
and sometimes even joined or inhabited by all