On my refusal to attend a poet's protest against the war.(New poems)(Poem)

 
On my refusal to attend 
a poet's protest against the war 
 
   Because I work with words, and you do too, 
   you ask me to come stand with you today, 
   thinking the words that bind us--and they do--have 
   brought us close enough for you to say 
 
   with confidence that you know how I feel 
   at such a time as this, at such a time 
   when I can hardly find a word that's real 
   enough, can hardly find a sensate rhyme 
 
   to start to say I don't know what to think, 
   may never know, but know enough to know 
   I cannot stand with those who march, spill ink, 
   and protest, or with ...