Surrender Poem by Ann Mckeeman

I thought I knew…
and in my numbed surity, I betrayed my soul.
(days, and weeks, and years …different battles but the same field-
strewn with the grisly carnage that colors my inner landscape-
I no longer see the brightness of the swiftly drying blood…nor hear the cries of anguish
twined about my heart…)
Believing …I thought that someday there would be an end to the engagement…
Have you never heard the stony cold echo of the laughter of the Universe in your ear, my friend?
(There is a point past exhaustion, beyond fatigue…and somewhere before madness…
where, as one leans upon one's sword the truth becomes as a fine shard of crystal
piercing every veil and darkness…)
No return, no surrender, no pardon, no end….
(even as the roses adorn the laurel wreaths upon the brows of those
celebrating that peace, has finally come…the warrior knows no end to the war…
only a brief breath
and then…)
again.