Response To Merton: Balandi And Alkaocai Poem by Steven Federle

To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing,
in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free,
more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become transparently
obvious that mere automatic 'rejection of the world' and 'contempt for the world'
is in fact not a choice but an evasion of choice.'
Thomas Merton. Contemplation in A World of Action

Our world is
bleeding out
filling the sea
with stolen
humanity

Why should I not
reject this contemptible
world?

Last night
in Kahdahar's shadow
Fear smashed open
the simple doors
of Balandi and Alkaozai

as an American soldier
defiled
the mothers and children
of two nations,
spread thick their blood
and painted red
this sinful
world.