I Want Peace
I want peace
personal local national global
what about...
walking down the street with hello and hello back, good morning to you, too
no more cavalier wrapper throwers
more trees and flowers
sitting with your sweetheart and listening
not thinking just yet of what you're about to say
peace shal-om and repeated
peace daily hours minutes seconds
tick tock around the clock peace
this friend with cancer
and that friend's friend with cancer
and that neighbor with cancer and
that neighbor is positive
and I have M.S
and you have your body story and so do you and you
living in a body this living in a body
are you tired
are you weary
are you drinking enough water?
and even if we are
our rivers are polluted
our foods are juiced with
pesticides herbicides
food suicide from our sugar and caffeine blues
MSG color # 2 bad fats against good fats
our children are sick and fat and tired
we are certainly not any smarter with 25 choices of rice
we are all alone
each our own only child left behind
peace shalom and repeated
peace daily hours minutes seconds
tick tock around the clock where is peace
share some time with your Nana
really look at the architecture around you
have an opinion about something speak up but not down
louder please I can't hear us
news drip fear grip war trip
sin of kin
west wing liars
saving face genocide disgrace
800,000 slain Tutsis
and another war goes on, and another, and another
peace where is there peace anymore
tonight I think of Bosnia Hersogovinia
be you Christian Muslim Orthodox Jew
Serb Croat
a child woman mother father brother sister
and I think of those right here in our own home town philly
around the corner under a tree
a young man sits with his head bowed in front of his brother's coffin
while...
far far away a woman is crushing cochineal bugs to make the deepest red color for her husband's burial cloth
in Rwanda, Darfur, Sierre Lionne, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan
or someone else somewhere else far far away
is boiling seashells to make the softest yellow ochre color for a wool cloth she will pound during a ceremonial dance
for rain because her village crops need rain
because her tears and blood are soaking the earth but the earth is thirsty and the rain is acid sad
I think of every p.o box area code and time zone
every people place and thing where the sun does and doesn't shine
may we slow down to recognize and remember one another
somehow let's bless each all and every moment
let's prepare the vegetables for our salad with mindfulness
grow the vegetables yes plant the seeds
peace shalom and repeated
peace daily hours minutes seconds
tick tock around the dial be peace
I think of this and that continent country city district neighborhood street front door to home
if you have a front door if you have a home
if you have a country
or are you lost too?
tired overwhelmed confused angry busy frustrated
are you burdened seeming there's a queue for life
let's ignite our hearts for peace
let's light a match for love within us
burning bush blaze and glowing
for the world for our neighbors for ourselves
(copyright K. Pannepacker, 2007)