Lingering

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 LINGERING 


Most tragic are the atrocities of war

after the war is over, 


here in the furthest fields 

where news is slow to travel.  


Or even traveled, not yet heard 

as meaning us, understood


to denote that our long-habitual 

rhythms must be unraveled 


to the hilt. When will it sink in—

in place of a bullet or a thin


apprehension of what over means—

this news of a decisive end 


to things? The enemy is over-

come: We needn’t do this anymore. 


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