The reception

Inside the wine flows

the food is served

dancing and singing

speeches toasts and stories

punctuating the air

we do not hear

The weeping outside

we do not see

the darkness outside

sound and sight do not

penetrate the reception

we dance like Cana

the best wine saved

for the end

Stained glass window of the wedding at Cana, St. John Neumann Church, Sunbury, Ohio. Sourced via Wikimedia Commons.

I am too old for war

I am too old for war

but I go, anyway,

or in spite of; the war

demands all. I see

a sea of white linen

extending up hillsides

of this valley. I look

down to see what

I am wearing; the linen

is the same. My hands

are gnarled; old trees.

The linen is the same.

The sword in my hand

begins to sing. I know

the song, by heart.

I have sung it before,

when I was young,

too young for war.

Photograph by Anna Langova via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.