During A War

Best wishes to you & yours,
he closes the letter.
For a moment I can’t
fold it up again –
where does “yours” end?
Dark eyes pleading what could we have done
differently?
Your family,
your community,
circle of earth, we did not want,
we tried to stop,
we were not heard
by dark eyes who are dying
now. How easily they
would have welcomed us in
for coffee, serving it
in a simple room
with a radiant rug.
Your friends and mine.

Poem:

Naomi Shihab Nye
From You and Yours
BOA Editions, 2005

Design:

Branden Vondrak
Kent State University
Visual Communication Design