Castle (Notevember 2023, #14)

For every bomb that blew
Outside your window
For every stone you threw
That came right back at you
For every shelter shook
To change the map, and
The plan that pawn takes rook
Never seemed to happen

I’ve been told to fight for change
It’s always out of range

My instincts are too base
Your words corrode like acid
Try to take each other out
The reaction will be massive
Every spark begets a blaze
And the frenzied burn the placid
Every hope is doused by doubt
Pieces scattered all about

Nothing solid yet
And no solution
Reclaim, revenge, regret
Repeatable results
A grand experiment
But no conclusion
Volatile elements
Make it all so difficult

In the chaos that is war
Blurred lines, mixed metaphor

[CHORUS]

No black and white; pretend
it’s grey like ash and smoke
Try as we might to mend
Reconstitute the broken
Our checkered past, the lies, the lands
Every disastrous game of no chance

It’s chess with all the rules
Thrown out the window
No kings or knights, just fools
And tools for crueler hands
If I should hear your cries
And start to change my mind
If you should sympathize
We just might equalize

We interrupt the game
To speak across the fences
Making mortar from the ash
Of a fire that never cleanses
So we stop assigning blame
And we build until the sense is
That there’s hope beneath the doubt
Piece by piece…
our peace will come about