It’s a just war and necessary, the president asserts.
A just war to protect us, congress agrees.
This war is not just like the last just war, we’re told.
That war was unwarranted but this war is justified.
God and justice are on our side…this time.
It’s just a war, after all.
It’s just the way we talk
to each other, since death
is now our common language.
Michael E. Williams was born in Kentucky and grew up in Tennessee. His poems have appeared in The Southern Poetry Review, The Southern Humanities Review, The Anglican Theological Review, and a number of other journals. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
A Quiet Courage 