A Spork in the Road

(A short post today, just to get back in the saddle after a long blogging hiatus…)

Ever since I first read Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est, I’ve had an abiding love for great war poems. Poetry seems one of the few effective ways for me to deal emotionally with the reality of war without simply collapsing in anguish or rage.

I’ve added a new one to my collection: “Girl in the War,” by a singer-songwriter from Idaho named Josh Ritter. It doesn’t hurt that the music is angelic in its beauty, in sharp contrast to the hard lyrics. The opening lines give you a sense of the song:

Peter said to Paul
“All those words that we wrote
Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go”
But now talkin’ to God is Laurel beggin’ Hardy for a gun
I gotta girl in the war, man I wonder what it is we done

Paul said to Petey
“You gotta rock yourself a little harder;
Pretend the dove from above is a dragon and your feet are on fire”
And I got a girl in the war, Paul the only thing I know to do
Is turn up the music and pray that she makes it through