SUBTRACTION AND LONG DIVISION

They tally the dead in columns of light,  
but no ledger holds the weight of a child’s last breath~  
the way it lingers, unspent, in the air,  
like a kite cut loose from its string.  

War has no pockets deep enough  
to carry all the excuses we stitch  
into its uniform. Every bullet  
that misses its mark  
finds a name anyway.  

And what of the hands that never held a gun,  
only bread, only the hem of a mother’s dress?  
They become the subtraction  
no one speaks aloud~  
the hollow where laughter once lived.  

And what’s left?  
A remainder called guilt,  
sticky as jam on a rifle stock,  
thick as the lies they stamp onto medals.  

War doesn’t solve.  
War is the long division  
that never ends.

11th grade12th grademeaningfulfree verse

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