(“Tomorrow’s Voices Today“ is a new series curated by poet and educator Mike Sonksen.)

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War

sits in my favorite spot on the couch
folding the laundry.
8PM
It’s just me and
War at the dinner table.
Scouting my plate and commanding
you well done.
I am full and 7yrs old.
you well done.
The microwave launches an airstrike
and the table top whirs loudly like an alarm.
We are quiet as the instant
noodles grow softer in the pot.
The metal treaty – a spoon
slowly spinning in my hand.
The craters of his eyes smolder impatiently he snatches the tiny bowl
and raises it above his head…

I did not understand then
at the moment he smashed the bowl on the table
till the moment the words fell on this paper

That war lived in my grandpa.