A few lines by William Stafford...

in recognition of Obama's promise to send more troops to Afghanistan:

Now is glass and an egg and gossamer in the wind.
Tomorrow is darkness and a bomb ticking.
But peace and yesterday are a still pool.
Peace and yesterday are a shadow quiet on the wall.

And from the sound of peace I heard a voice,
A man who raised before the wind of steel
A wispy tapestry of wondering:

"Why follow half-way saviors, men who kill
Or lie or compromise for distant ends?
Marauders come; but no man dares cry 'Wolf!'
The wolves look too much like our guardians ..."


From "From the Sound of Peace" by William Stafford, 1941. Another World Instead: The Early Poems of William Stafford 1937-1947 (Graywolf Press, 2008) 12-13.