There seems to be
More and more in college classrooms
Returning—many with eyes alert
With time management skills—diligent and ready.
(Some with PTSD or Moral Injury, yes).
One asked me, point blank
Was I trying to pick a fight with him?
Another could have been Mother Theresa
Her demeanor was so inclined that way.
Another felt he had dyslexia
Though he explained it was never properly diagnosed.
He kept a cheery countenance
Was well liked by other students.
Though he could not write at all
It didn’t seem to bother him.
This one student I had the good fortune
To view in action
The day I took a misstep in front of the class--
Could have lost my balance. He was
Up and on it, ready to catch me
Obviously eager to be once again
Back in that world of animal movement
Not words on paper.
He said, “I want to go back.”
Another said the same.
Such a vacant gap in my understanding
Of what they went through and what
They still yearn for.
Presently I have yet another student
Returning to Afghanistan.
His research topic pertains to his soon-to-be job
Working in schools for Afghanistan children.
He wants to give them something
Remotely similar to what we have here
“critical thinking,” thereby opening up
The possibility to resist indoctrination by ISSIS
Or any other violent militia presence.
His goal sounds so much like a close friend of mine
Joining the Peace Corps in Afghanistan in 1978
Setting up and opening schools in Kabul--
Only to have the program fold prematurely
Because of war breaking out and increased danger.
Under peaceful auspices my friend
Long ago was sent to do the same thing this military recruit
Will be doing in the near future in a guise of war.
So really what is the relation between peace and war?
The two are often set up as diametrically opposed but really
What is that relation? I am confused because these students seem
As Gertrude Stein originally put it
There there. There is something there.
I keep looking into these students’ eyes
For the answer. I imagine that
They can imagine something more different
That most of us have known.
Tell me who you are what you see why you are
Why
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