There isn't time

There isn't time

There isn’t time

for fear in war.  You just react

but what do I know

never having fought

fairly

just unjustly

like when I leaned heavily

onto my brother with fists

and words.

We are bodies

pawns to minds

ours, others,

sometimes we go along

sometimes our backs ache

like we’re straining against the load

was that my command

that this body dislikes?

Who disrupts the flow?

Whose voice do I hear

echoing in my ear

like some football coach headset

but on the inside?

It must be mine

or God’s or some demon’s

or Coca-Cola or Miles Davis’ trumpet line

or was that Coltrane? A Love Supreme.

It’s common

knowledge we learn all our lives

isn’t the same

as wisdom; we don’t know

what we don’t know

most of the time

like how my heart doesn’t beat

with time

with your time

anymore

not because

it’s just

because

our time

timing wasn’t right

just like a stutter

our time

timing wasn’t right.