2020-2021: Cowards and Heroes by Kim Calhoun

a poetic reflection of 21 months

I never knew I lived among so many

Frightened humans

The vestiges of collapse

The impropriety nature of fear

Digging claws into news channels

Hanging hope on medicinal bottles and needles

Junkies clinging to cloth masks and plexiglass

But you can’t call it “fear”

You can’t call it “cowardice”

Cowards call it caution, wisdom, “smart”

Heroes call it by name

Fear

Heroes know kryptonite

Dark jokers

Paralyzing ghosts

Spiritual wickedness

Rigid mountains

But they climb anyway

They don’t stay inside while the city burns

They don’t hide

Instead, they turn and fight

Tooth and nail

To the death if they must

Because they heard the wail of sorrow in their dreams

They climb that wall

They stare down the barrel of the gun

They send signals to awaken other heroes

“Rise to attention!”

They yell it from towers

They echo God’s voice from their Bibles

I met heroes in the hyphen

I met generals who stood guard

They saw the smoke

Raised an alarm

While the city slept

They said it was coming

While the city slept

An enemy did this

While men slept

That enemy sits in high places barking orders

To his demons

While their pockets jingle to the bank

Money is the root of evil

The spirit of fear spinning the media like a ravaging typhoon

The destruction is so widespread

We think it’s normal to drown

The news normalized fear

Fear is teaching students in institutions

Sitting in coffee shops by windows

In churches on the pews

In shopping mall food courts

Between families at dining tables

Cruising the streets

Breeding more spirits like itself

Looking for houses among men to dwell

This roaring lion is a walking tyrant

Seeking to devour and drown the world in fear

Control men by fear

BUT God has NOT given His people a spirit of fear

I am grateful for the heroes

I pray for the cowards

Because you don’t make it into the Promise Land

If you only see the monsters

instead of the milk and honey flowing

rivers in deserts

But men love darkness because their deeds are evil

and darkness only sees fear

eats fear

spreads fear

speaks fear

lives fear

sells fear

and cowards buy it

tormented by Goliath

five smooth stones wait by the waters, quietly