Over Coffee

Paul and I debated, if wars start from ego or scarcity.
Our debate boiled over, before we laughed at ourselves.

Paul claimed victory citing our inflating egos
because our defamatory vocabulary escalated

each of us wanting to win
in volatile measures compared to the other.

We noted that god never entered our debate
as if the Christian crusades never impaled a single Saracen breath.

Nor did we include patriotism
which Paul claimed was an intellectual construct

manufactured by politicians, the NRA, and
John Phillip Sousa to sell lines of useless household products

like campaign-promised border walls, A-R fifteen assault rifles,
and Sousaphones for marching band members.

Paul suggested the Civil War was dreamed up
by Hollywood script writers

as a dramatic explanation
over the cotton market collapse that made slavery obsolete.

I know he pulls my leg. I pull his leg
with a wrestling move remembered from high school,

pin him, and declare victory after a ten count.
But I spilled our coffee in the process, bumping the table,

and felt all Marshall Plan inside, so purchased two fresh cups,
instead of inflicting a counterproductive Versailles Treaty on him.

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copyright © 2019 Kenneth P. Gurney