There are more questions yet that I'm asking

And getting this message right's most important

"It is not poetry's fault that it has so small an audience, so little effect upon the frightened, money-loving world. Poetry, after all, is not a miracle. It is an effort to formalize (ritualize) individual moments and the transcending effects of these moments into a music that all can use. It is the song of our species."

Mary Oliver, from Blue Pastures, "Pen and Paper and a Breath of Air." 

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And sometimes, in pursuit of some fresh magic, some new transcendance, I take a path and lose my way briefly. Upon my returning, I realize I was remiss in not notifying anyone I was off on a walk. Which is to say, I left much of the last week’s writing in my head, a perfectly useless place to keep all the words that should have been written.

I’ll aim to notify you of future temporary sojourns. And will write more this coming week than is usual.

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This week’s questions begin with this big one: where has the Russian Army disappeared to?

After 6 weeks of the worst war in the European continent in 77 years, we were told the Russians had invaded Ukraine. We observe the news daily and are deeply troubled. It appears the Ukraine army has been badly mauling some army, but it sure can’t be the Russian one. That army was huge and fierce.

No, the Ukrainians are fighting the Army of the Cowards that nobody expected or can explain. The Army of the Cowards is incapable of fighting other armies composed of men. The Army of the Cowards takes its fights to the elderly, the feeble, the mothers and their children. The Army of Cowards can’t even fight them face to face, preferring to aim for the backs of people fleeing. It’s truly amazing and disgusting how the Army of Cowards fights. I can only expect them to take up a new front against Newborn Kittens or maybe launch an artillery attack on the Daylilies.

I presume that fascist Vladimir Putin has hidden the Russian Army away and hired this proxy Army of Cowards and boy what a terrible mistake that has been. It is now so difficult to believe this man headed the Soviet Union’s top intelligence service since Russia’s leadership now lacks service or intelligence.

Twenty years from now the Chernobyl Battalion of the Army of the Cowards will be dying of cancer because their commander had them digging tunnels through radioactive dirt in hot zones, ignoring the Ukrainian scientists urging them not to. Armies of Cowards are known to ignore scientists and to die early in doing so.

This Army of Cowards lost 7 generals in a month in those rare moments when they’ve battled against men. To put that in perspective, it took almost 2 years for the United States to lose 7 generals in World War II. So now the Army of Cowards has a new set of ground rules. They’ll only agree to fight men who are bound and gagged, or are trying to get on with the necessities of life: music, the arts, tending gardens, raising children to be interesting or kind. Or are sleeping.

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And when did Texas start its own Army of Cowards? This one is a ragtag bunch of armed and unarmed misguided misfits engaged in a fight to take back what they can never have: the right of an adult woman to safe healthcare and a full set of choices of treatments and medications and exercises to keep her body functioning well.

Lizelle Herrera, 26, who hails from one of the poorest counties in the country (Starr County, Texas), sought medical care after she had a miscarriage in January. Major Carlos Delgado of the county sheriff’s office had her arrested last week and held on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail for allegedly causing "the death of an individual by self-induced abortion."

Most people assumed she was being charged for terminating her own pregnancy but that wasn’t made clear in the sheriff’s statement. The Texas Not-Ready-For-Persons-Of-Uterus-Ownership Legislature recently passed a law that prevents poor women from getting an abortion after 6 weeks (when the fetus is the size of a green pea) and offers a reward to those who snitch out any poor women who do. Middle and upper class women are subject to the same law but can easily travel elsewhere to get their health needs met.

As it turns out, though, there is no law in Texas against a woman terminating her own pregnancy. So after a week that saw human rights advocates clamoring for her release, she was first released on bond, then the charges were dropped. Starr County DA: "it is clear that Ms. Herrera cannot and should not be prosecuted for the allegation against her."

"Although with this dismissal Ms. Herrera will not face prosecution for this incident, it is clear to me that the events leading up to this indictment have taken a toll on Ms. Herrera and her family. To ignore this fact would be shortsighted. The issues surrounding this matter are clearly contentious, however based on Texas law and the facts presented, it is not a criminal matter."

According to the founder of a group that has the temerity to believe women possess actual human rights, “She miscarried at a hospital and allegedly confided to hospital staff that she had attempted to induce her own abortion and she was reported to the authorities by hospital administration or staff.”

The charges against her were dropped Sunday, April 10th. I wonder when they’ll refund the half million dollar bond they set on that poor woman, an amount higher than many major and actual criminals face.

So the Texas Army of Cowards is led by a legislature that sought to turn the human rights clock back 50 years so poor women have to cede control of their ovaries, fallopian tubes, uteri and vaginas to them. Then some volunteer grunts working at the hospital decided to violate her patient confidentiality rights by turning her in for committing a non-criminal act. The sheriff brought the info before a grand jury that apparently decided to indict her for committing no crime. Was an order given to this volunteer Army of Cowards to ‘Begin Misfiring!’ or do they all think the US Constitution is fake?

I’m guessing the lege will now meet to plug the loopholes in her birth canal before she gets uppity and decides to have sex again.

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There’s a long long history of cowardly armies, so the fresh ones really should pause to fully understand where that approach always ends.

Always.

#ArmyOfCowards