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Fourteen Days

For fourteen days the world trembled,
Held in its collective breath
As though any release would bring
The much feared and expected death.
They played poker with our lives,
Took it to the very brink,
And the world watched and waited
Barely daring to think.
In the Atlantic Ocean converging
Both a Russian and American fleet
With mind blowing consequences
Should they continue course and meet.

And suddenly it was over:
Accommodations were arranged
And from that crisis
The balance of power subtly changed.
Kennedy shot a bare year later,
Conspiracy theories still abound
But any link to the Cuban Crisis
Doesn't seem to have been found.
Barely another year after
Khruschev himself was gone
Overthrown from power
And the world moved slowly on.

It was a strange existence,
That part of the Cold War,,
Material wealth growing more,
And a seeming desire to be
Divorced from our recent past,
Perhaps from a reluctance to accept
Any Hot War day could be our last.
Dylan sang of his Hard Rain
The Stones came and rolled on,
The Beatles sang of love and maybe
Some of the despair was gone.

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Fourteen Days