Peace has Broken Out

 

Peace has broken out –

children’s faces are singing in the sun:

their fathers will come home now

to redeem their sleep from fear.

 

Only the warmongers knit their brows

into nightmares full of foul intrigues.

 

Peace has broken out –

The sun is singing in the women’s eyes:

the men will bring their hearts

home now craving sweet love.

 

In America, Canada and Israel

arms dealers break into a sweat

over their offshore accounts.

 

Peace has broken out –

the wool sings it on the ancient loom,

the hammer drums it into tin and copper,

the chisel carves it into wood.

 

Only the brutal guns are idle now

resting smug on their laurels of death.

 

Peace is occupying the town:

the muezzin proclaims it from the minaret,

traders tout its pleasures in the bazaar,

lovers dance again to the beat of their passion

and the river runs red through dawn and dusk

washing away blood from bitter memories.

 

A dry wind blows hot from the desert,

keeps the green blades honed in the palms.

 

Let peace sift the sand beyond fertile valleys

to fill the life’s hourglass with song and dance.

 

 

So that the dead shall not be dead in vain

let the arms dealers languish in the prison of their greed,

let Wall Street bankers and brokers bankrupt

their humanity with derivatives and bonuses:

 

May they choke on their iniquities

so that the truly living can rejoice again

in the serene air that sings of freedom.

 

© Henry Beissel, 2011.