In the war
you may dance
but only as you’ve been instructed
and only for the purposes
your commanders have authorized.

In the war
you may fight.
You may fight for peace.
You may fight for pieces of eight.
You may fight for pieces of eighteen-year-olds.
You may fight for pieces of eighteen-year-old rights.
In the war, you may fight for pieces of eighteen-year-old’s rights to party!

In the war
you may go forward
or retreat or sidestep issues
or – as is so often the case –
ignore them as much as you may wish.
What you cannot do
what you can never do
is nothing
because in every war
you will find that everything is lost
when you simply do nothing.

Yes, I suppose you could ignore doing something
as much as you wish,
thus following exactly what I said before.
Yes, I suppose I have
been hoisted by my own petard.
Yes,
it does feel good.