The Cold War Never Really Ended

“The Cold War never really ended”
Said my cousin the Air Force Major
While he drove me from the airport at midnight
to see our dying grandmother back in 2009
I always remember what he said, and wanted to use that line.
A poem about a couple whose words were like skidding on black ice
Public words that encoded private suffering
But the line no longer speaks, or else the world can no longer hear it
And my cousin, now a lieutenant colonel, is soon to retire