Love in a Time of War
Campbell, Mary Baine
Love in a Time of War The e-mail chain letter about happiness Which I didn't send on, so I will not be happy, Or not now, said "Believe in love at first sight." OK, so I will believe. I will...
...I will believe that love Can appear in the air between two bodies, In the bright ether between two spirits As fast as that, like a saint appearing After death-like a bomb falling Through blue sky-like a sun emerging From the black mask of an interfering moon...
...Why did the painters of Lascaux paint horses...
...Because it can come like a horse Across the desert, along the shore Swift as air, quick as light, Its rider joy, its rider terror with a spear, Its rider longing beyond justice...
...I was afraid If I sent it on it would just carry advice About smiling too much and being nice, And no one would read it all the way To the command: "Believe in love at first sight...
...But so much of it was drivel...
...Why did the painters of Lascaux paint the deer And not the woman, her side pierced by light And air, her heart aloft on the spear's point...
...I kept the letter about happiness to myself At great cost, I know-I need luck badly...
...It can come, it comes, upon you, in you And it can blind you, it can kill you, It can bring you back to life...
...Mary Baine Campbell...
...It can come like a tsunami, and destroy The little village by the sea, where the people Go about gathering food, and mending Their nets and their houses, and feeling Beside them by night the trusted bodies...
...Or if they did, their belief, like mine, Might bring lives down in flames, Might start a war, might form the matter Of a poetry that comes to save what can be saved From the rubble of the city's awful fall...
Vol. 130 • April 2003 • No. 7
