Today's Stichomancy for Dr. Phil

The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis:

Safeguarded for our sons, Let us cease dreaming! Let us have More ships, more troops, more guns!

WITH THE SUBMARINES

ABOVE, the baffled twilight fails; beneath, the blind snakes creep; Beside us glides the charnel shark, our pilot through the deep; And, lurking where low headlands shield from cruising scout and spy, We bide the signal through the gloom that bids