chilled to the bone
by Elouise
chilled to the bone
night’s deep silence descends
winter drifts through cracks
***
Disconnected from feelings
Numb and disbelieving
I want to write
So many unknowns
So much at stake
So little time left
Will I or Won’t I?
Sooner or Later?
Is Never still an option?
This week brought unwelcome news in a couple of areas. No catastrophic accidents. Just the knowledge of things I didn’t want to hear. About a friend and about my health.
Yesterday we drove through Valley Forge National Historic Park. Outdoor temperatures were subfreezing. Snow was on the ground, covering a thin layer of frozen sleet. We saw one brave soul walking his beautiful dog along one of the paths that circle and cut through Valley Forge. Everyone else was in heated four-wheel vehicles driving through the Park.
I didn’t write the haiku above after that drive. But it captures some of the angst and foreboding perhaps encoded in the few remaining buildings and cabins still standing here and there throughout the Park. Remnants of a winter nightmare followed by springtime diseases that took more lives than winter took.
They thought they would be going home to their families and friends.
foot paths meander
through fields of wartime sorrow —
home to the fallen
I want to find my way home. Don’t you? Life is filled with breathtaking beauty. The kind that makes leaving it breathtakingly painful. Right now I’m being invited to play life in a different key. And my cold fingers are stumbling around a bit, learning to be at home in what doesn’t always feel like home.
© Elouise Renich Fraser, 19 January 2018
Photo of cabins at Valley Forge found at history.org
Telling the Truth 
They say that home is where the heart is.
The War Office assures me that I don’t have one.
Does that make me one of the homeless people of this world? 😈
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Here….you can have some of my heart ❤️! 😊
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I wouldn’t know what to do with it 👿 😀
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Civil War. We all know the story of Cain and Abel and the lesson we should learn. But was the American Civil War the worst ever rewriting of Cain and Abel?
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In some ways, our entire history might be seen that way. We get rid of brothers and sisters who seem to have something that might threaten what we have or think we deserve. The Valley Forge National Historic Park is a living monument to the American Revolution, but the Civil (Uncivil) War, as well as declared and undeclared war against Native Americans and immigrants have been justified as what had to be done in order to protect us or our rights. This includes overt and covert action against women, men and children imported as slaves, along with their descendants. I haven’t thought this through carefully, and I’m not a trained historian, but it makes sense to me. Sick sense, for sure, because we’re harming ourselves as well.
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