The Crystal War

THE CRYSTAL WAR

The earth knows how to hide its secrets well,
sometimes men, too, must hide secrets,
even wage desperate battles to bury these secrets,
'cause keeping them hidden could mean the difference
between death and survival,
humiliation and scourge.
Unknown to the outside world,
Kentucky is waging such a battle,
and the cause of this battle is an addiction,
that grows and swells with each passing hour.
Under the scolding sun, the days seem hot,
throbbing with unrelenting humidity;
no storm has come and the air is still
as officers search for the crystal stash;
sometimes the stillness will end
with a gentle rain of disappointment,
but sometimes with a thundering
storm of triumph as yet one more lab is dismantled.
The sea of hope is sometimes calm and motionless,
but the sea is never still;
sometimes a force has beckoned to tear families apart
and we never know if we are being drawn
from the pain and disruption
or toward some final shore.