So build yourself as beautiful as you want your world to be. Wrap yourself in light then give yourself away with your heart, your brush, your march, … - Andrea Gibson

...And for every day you paint the war, take a week and paint the beauty, the color, the shape of the landscape you’re marching towards. Everyone knows what you’re against; show them what you’re for.

My grandfather went to Heaven.

I know this because he taught my mother
how to wiggle her ears.
I know this because my mother walks the same way
my grandfather did
and on the days my mother cannot get out of bed
her single comfort
is knowing she has his blood.

Sometimes I imagine Hitler at seven years old,

a paint brush in his hand at school

thinking, “What color should I paint my soul?

The closest I might ever come to war is the turning of my head. Apathy is intimate, like singing a lullaby to a grenade, then drinking yourself to sleep while it sneaks out the window to explode a boy.