Cold In Our Hearts

The cold did not prevent our walk. I carried my camera
and led the way. We went to where the little birds
had been. There had been a flock of Townsend warblers

yesterday. Little birds with yellow markings around
their eyes made small pleasing sounds. You thought they
must have moved further south. I searched other parts of the woods,

settled for taking a picture of an ant hill.
Instead of birds, the little boy from the house
down the road appeared. He wanted to know

when I’d be planting potatoes.
You said you were “”wobbly”.
We went inside and I gave you white cranberry juice.

The afternoon news began and I decided to make cake
the way they make it in Normandy France.
Butter, eggs, flour, chocolate melting in the copper double boiler,

a pinch of salt, a cup of sugar, nothing more,
a little cake for later;
food for the stomach a bird for the soul.

We looked at the Carnegie report. It confirmed
our suspicion that the causus belli for beginning
the War in Iraq last March was false. We agreed

we would not show the report to the girls.
White flags and yellow painted birds
with chocolate cake ought to be enough.

But you became quiet, thought it would be best
not to read anymore of the Carnegie report.

It might keep us awake.
I cleared the table. Only the indigo blue cloth
remains.

... by Diane Wyland Carle (2004)

[Written January 26, 2004 when they "received in the mail a copy of The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 2004 Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, evidence and implications.
- RocksWorks]