<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">On a Day of Unjust War</span><div><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">The scent of warming earth clung to his clothes</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">after he came home from the greenhouse,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">holding a bouquet of bok choy gone to bloom</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">with tiny yellow blossoms barely blinking</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">among the leaves. On a day of unjust war </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">and innocents killed by strikes from our country,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">because I could do nothing else, I took the bundle </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">from him, found a Mason jar and filled it </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">with cold water. I placed it on a window sill—</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">but no, he said, over there, pointing toward</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">the other sill where sun still fell across the wood. </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">I laid my makeshift vase in that patch of light </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">and closed my eyes, saying a prayer for us all—</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">a prayer as small but fierce as yellow flowers </span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">opening in winter.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- James Crews</div></div></div></body></html>