Cherry blossoms growing among the barbed wire.
Young children on school trips laughing in uniforms and in line.
Old people reliving the history of the nation, and their own.
Security cameras everywhere.
Curious tourists like us.
The bridge to freedom and the railway station waiting to send trains north,
one day,
God willing.
Hope and fear.
Tourism and deadly seriousness.
An unsteady and unstable peace.

Though is cessation of violence the same as peace?
Because the Korean War has continued all these long years.

Families divided.
Barbed wire.
Security cameras.
Soldiers.
Checkpoints.
A future yet to be determined—
at the DMZ.

-Rev. Lauren Lorincz
April 19, 2018

Photo by Rev. Lauren Lorincz.