For the sake of peace

What do we do for the sake of peace?

Really? 

Years pass, hiding

hours tremble down crumpled spine.

Unspoken fire scolds every song

we loved in season upon season

of truth

taken for granted,

withering now in low lain shade. 

We keep hurt in, so that ease can play

uninterrupted in fields of joy,

even as our licence to grow is revoked. 

Medicine

imported now, cooler climes now;

their ancient sagas turned

to stone

long ago.

What do we do for the sake of peace?

Keep pills in night drawers. 

Fill hands with instruments.

Arm triggers.

Stamp far feet away down trodden paths, 

trespass 

on homelands that grew us.

Really.

What we do for the sake of peace

plays a single tin whistle

between lullabies,

shrill and interrupting

sleep. We cannot hold

sleep, she will not belong. 

What do we do for the sake of peace

when to admit harsh truths

would kill our babies?

What do we do for the sake of peace

when our baby’s mother wails

humiliation and compensation, 

when our knees give way at each step,

when our hip aches, and rashes

cover still tender wounds,

leaden crop, neglected pasture

surely poisoning our silver lands - 

what do we do, then? 

What do we do for the sake of peace

when to feed belly 

hungry for justice

would wage war? 

What do we do for the sake of peace? 

What do we do for the sea?

What do we do for the storm? 

Ay, mariner, thee, your sails wrung

      or mast flagged, pirate and rebellion

knowing elsewhere burden differs

      and yet still, weighted 

by old names

    you refuse to salute,

naming birds as your messengers,

collecting their shit for fuel.

Curl upon slanted tide, kick high,

and claim victory over fate until crying

drunk and undone,

return ye, 

ancient, alone to that battleground again

for the sake of peace,

asking, 

really,

what do we do?