It may be spring by the calendar, yet most of the world is now experiencing a winter of despair because the United States has chosen to fight an unending war in Iraq and in Afghanistan, and now contemplates widening the conflict to other Middle East countries. My prayer is that these wars will end quickly and that the voice of the turtle dove will again be heard in the land. Spring cannot come too soon. Each life lost in these conflicts is one too many. God, grant us peace.

One Winter morning in the early 1970's, I awoke to find the ground blanketed with snow. The thought of shoveling all that snow on that bitterly cold morning made me want to crawl back into my warm bed. Suddenly, the sun came out and the beauty of the new-fallen snow was almost overwhelming. I was moved to wax poetic. Since the Vietnam war was in the forefront of my mind in those days, I somehow began to compare the fury of the storm and its subsequent results with that war. What follows is the poem that I wrote that morning. I leave it to you, the reader, to interpret it as you will.

Is it Venus or Mars?

Behold! A ring encircles the lady.
Oh, portent of things to come.
With loud clamoring he retreats and advances.
His fury is upon us.
Campaigns of recent times were benign.
Battles were few and his fury was quickly spent.
Let us drink to changing times.
A generation of peace, at last.

Awake you fools!
Know you not that he lies in wait for you?
He hides among the trees.
You sally forth and he leaps upon you.
Now he lies very still.
The crocus and the daffodil peek out.
One last death shudder.
He is gone.

I look out my window at the carnage.
Marshmallows on the yews.
Cotton candy covers the ground.
Was he really such a bad fellow?
The sun is shining and rivulets run down the face of the earth.
Does she weep for joy or does she mourn?
What star hangs in the Western sky?
Is it Venus or is it Mars?

- Jay D Weaver
Copyright (c) Jay D Weaver, 1972