These are the words

When there are no words

When your head is empty

And your heart is so full it may burst

These are the words

That bubble up

Behind a tongue that is lodged

To the roof of the mouth

Jaw locked

Throat blocked

These are the words

That hum

As the body becomes a tuning fork

For an entire chorus

Which sings behind the voiceless

At a note indiscernible

To the human ear

I know why the butcher bird mourns

And the hawk screams

As it descends

Plummeting to the earth

Only to rise again

And perhaps our ancestors knew the cadence

Of this tune too

For it is the song of war provoked

And the song sung after the war

is stoked

And the soldiers broken

Humbled in the field

Because they realise

It was never about the things they thought

It was larger

And really

It never was a war

It was just life moving

through them

Arming a temporary soul

With ancient goals

That must pass

through them

But the words

The words uttered

At the end

Are not The End

They are

Thank you

Thank you

And thank you again

The head is bowed

The knee bent

And those that go to such awful places

Are never troubled again

By the battles that life wages

Through

Them

Because in the end

It’s never about them

Just through

Always through

Only through

So breathe

March

And leave the swords upon the ground