Soviet munitions bunkers

“The heart knows the way though there may be high-rises, interstates, checkpoints, armed soldiers, massacres, wars, and those who would despise you because they despise themselves.”
            -Joy Harjo

For Jawid

WHAT WE USED TO KNOW

Behind concrete and barbed wire, a laughing 

dove shit on my notebook.  An obvious sign.      

I heard they tied a bomb to one once.  But it  

refused to fly over the target.  Out of character

perhaps.  They should call it what we do.  

Condemn it to mourning this borderline country. 

We’ve learned nothing since climbing down 

from trees.  Clocks and smart phones were bad

enough.  The day birds become an air force is the 

day to boil down the bones of our humanity.  Tear

down the schools.  Plant trees in the rubble and 

watch them grow tall.  Hire birds to be our teachers

for free.  Learn to climb again into green canopies,

where they’ll teach us what we used to know.                    

    

2/7/18 
Afghanistan            

The Girl from Kabul

“For any spark to make a song it must be transformed by pressure.  There must be unspeakable need, muscle of belief, and wild, unknowable elements.  I am singing a song that can only be born after losing a country.”

            -Joy Harjo, from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

"Hello T-Walls"

Willie Nelson, "Hello Walls":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cwcETeIUUg