Believe It Or Not

Claire came home, 
went up to her room, 
and wrote a poem. 


Trust me, this is not a daily thing. Most days, she heads straight for the tv and the big green chair, hoping to catch a cooking show or if I'm out of the room, Housewives of Orange County. 


Why?she asks, when I say change the channel.
It's interesting, Mom, she tells me. Great characters.


My kid knows I'm a sucker for great characters.


But today, the notebook won out. 


She came into the kitchen.
"I wrote a poem,"she said, "Do you want to hear it?"
"Absolutely,"I said,"But I'm curious?"
"About?"
"Did you just decide to come home and write a poem, or had you been thinking about it?"
"I was thinking about another one while I was in school but it didn't turn out, so I wrote this."
"That's pretty neat. Okay, let's hear it."


War by Claire Collins


War is ugly
War is bad
It's starting to make
me very mad
I'm getting sick
of all the pain
I must stop the
tears from falling like
rain. We need to escape
all the guns and the bombs
All this hate, all those lies
No one lives, everyone dies
God, please cure
the bad and the mean.
This is war. Believe it or not.


On this Flag Day...


Remembering our service people far away from home and all people everywhere who are in the midst of the bad and the mean.