To be Around when Peace Blooms

I am finding it hard to sit still within,
to settle in
to praying for peace;
of course I want it for us all,
but honestly, I have more to say…
There are
so many other words
within me.
So I hope you don’t mind
if I just talk for a while.
Thank you—I do love you.
Here’s the thing:

If it was a massive
act of literacy that did it,
that would be alright.
A massive act
of reading history and taking notes
and learning something
from what we read in
the devastation wrought,
the generations lost-
those lost in the moment and
those wandering lost in years to come;
If it was a literacy of mind,
a literacy of heart,
that took out humanity,
brought it to a gasping shame,
a gasping humility, a gasping awareness
of what atrocities have been done
to gain food for the ego of one side
by acts that should
turn stomach and soul,
and the shock of truth
so shook humanity that
that was that, the end,
It might not be so bad.

That might not be so bad,
but really

What I’m asking
is this:
Please don’t let war
be the last act of humanity.

I’d like us all to be around
when peace blooms fresh and wild scented.

Kimberly M. King