[Shannon]

 

Tina confided

her pride would override pleas

for her to appease

 

justifiable probing

of her feelings, fearing tears

 

would overwhelm her.

In the realm of these three coins,

this circle is joined

 

together to nurture, not

to exploit, and further, to

 

treasure the truth told

boldly on Joe’s Honor Coin.

Pass ’til you’re ready,

 

if ever, to join your thoughts

to those brought by these others.

 

[Crystal]

 

Who now wants to speak

to cover what’s been said or,

instead, be authors

 

of issues not yet perceived.

Ah, Robert, when through please pass

 

the talking stick, once

you are finished, to your left

as past, established

 

procedure has codified.

[Bob]

 

It’s never, ever my aim

 

to deride or to

minimize the feelings of

any person hurt,

 

but to exert the mantra

to see a thing for what it

 

actually is.

Nothing more, nothing less tests

homage to dogma

 

by compelling you to view

the savage damage received

 

or that you’ve conceived

during your revenge crazed rage

simmered in safety.

 

This mantra demands you to

exude immense fortitude

 

to see the rude not 

the polite nor the contrite

but the hateful and

 

mean; the real ugly, not the

imagined beautiful but

 

the mangled bodies

of the awful terror of

thoughtful genocide

 

practiced by the powerful

who survive by dauntless, harsh,

enforced servitude

for their pleasure to bolster

their self-importance.

 

Tina, bullies isolate 

their targets to avoid the

 

employed convergence

to consolidate the skilled

cooperative

 

assessment of their actions

by intelligent persons

 

within the masses

held fast beneath the fat thumb

of the ignorant,

 

but not dumb, dictators who

view such people as traitors

 

who are arbiters

of their annihilation.

These folks have cast off 

 

the yoke of servitude and 

exude hate toward oppressors.

 

You are not alone.

We don’t condone aggression.

Self-protection’s key.

 

[Kevin]

 

I was justified to end

a life so Bree and I could

survive and not die

by the hand of Narcissist

Twisting wishing for

 

absolute power over

her self-determination.

 

The confiscation

of her free will showered his

fantasies with bliss. 

 

Righteous, justifiable

limit-setting pressing for

 

lethal action can’t

be endured without a sound

comprehension of

 

the biblical precept of

love your enemy to free

 

your spirit from hell’s

adept, dark despair that splits

your wits into cells

 

of disconnected swells of

confusing contradictions

 

slamming the strong hull 

of your consciousness adrift

without your rudder

 

on a fierce hurricane strained

ocean of doubt about to

 

sink your sanity.

Donald, I thank you for your

constancy to be

my good friend when I’m unhinged.

And William, you defend me

 

always, in spite of

all of the times I infringe

on our friendship 

 

to flip my adversity 

into a recipe for 

 

informed learning for

turning my risks into a 

protected, intense, 

 

expanding enlightenment.

To love your enemy is

 

paradoxical

and categorically 

tough to perceive when 

 

brutes, who pollute love with lies, 

deceit and with treachery,

 

hide debauchery 

’til bored impatience invades

the delicacy

 

of a young child’s innocence

with long protruding tirades

 

to eviscerate

self esteem deemed to strengthened

independent choice

 

and a strong voice to withstand

impertinent, mean demands.

Hatred is the source

fuel for cruel heinous actions

that are subtractions

 

from a quality life lived

that gives hope, encouragement

 

and fulfillment to 

novices keen on being 

the best possible

 

person, full of compassion,

and champion of other lives

 

likewise striving too.

There are a few who construed

with accuracy

 

the inadequacy of

my complacency to kill.

 

The pill to heal my

suffering, ill consciousness

was self-reflection

 

administered by these friends

who comprehend desire

 

for looking away,

to stray from honest, correct

appraisal of the

 

light/dark, yin/yang, total self.

I needed more than ample

comprehension of

the dark side that resides deep

within everyone.

 

It’s no fun to peer into

your hate seared vision of knives

 

slicing, blood gushing,

heads bludgeoned with black slapjacks.

To know the dark side

 

is not to follow its call

but to forgo its hardball

 

confrontation with

delight to ignite fright in

conquered, trembling prey.

 

There is a mutual sway

between the light and the dark

 

when self-protection

squares off before another’s

lust for destruction

 

toward a meek, gentle person

seeking to escape feeling

 

the menacing pleasure of

the master inflicting his

sickening terror.

 

To love your enemy means

to hate behavior that screams

 

absolute disdain

for life other than one’s self

that drains that person

wanting absorption of love

but is damaged above your

 

best message of hope

that he can achieve his needs

comprehensively

 

if he would share caringly.

Love the potential of him

 

that has a slim chance

to rehabilitate his

impossible life.

 

Defend yourself but dispatch

life without remorse when there’s

 

no viable course

other than a corpse to end

your need to defend.

 

[Joseph Ward]

 

I have not obtained Kevin’s

clarity about Christian

 

charity. I’m more

for tying heavy millstones

around abhorred bones

 

to secure needed penance

for the most vicious grievance

 

by smart defilers

of children and enslavers

of weak innocents.