Sonnet #78

When the time comes to fight against my country

I suspect I won't do it. I'd gather my family --

I'd run. My loyalty to country as a community

Is not worth the blood of children; what polity

deserves the blood of wife and children?

My loyalty is to them. State agents may judge

That I had best go back and fight, but I am

A middle-aged man, never fired a gun, trudged

through no training of organized violence, 

If we wake in the dark in terrible fear,

If we tremble to stumble past force or resistance

If I must wonder if I will see them again, their stares:

What will they eat, will they be stolen in the night?

No damn, fool "country" is worth child, parent, wife.