If you could
sit awhile and imagine
What it is
they’re trying to accomplish,
Hear them
out, listen with an open mind
And heart,
if you would simply entertain
The idea
that they might want something
Or might
have something they want
To give to
the world, something beautiful
Only they can
offer, if you could just
Accept that
they too have children,
And families
who want to remember
When life was
good, quiet, modest, livable,
When you
didn’t have to look over your shoulder,
Didn’t have to
take the long way,
Didn’t have
to walk like a killer-in-waiting,
If you could
do that together, then, yes,
Maybe no one
will decide to bomb
London, Damascus,
Boston or Lebanon.
Those suffering
death and destruction
From
Tomahawks and IEDs, Reapers
And Operation
Suicide Bomber, those who
Suffer the
words that serve their passions
Should sit together,
eat, drink, tell each
How his Lord
looks after the poor, how
He preaches
brotherhood and sisterhood
Wherever he lands
with a voice straight
From earth. Fire
up the grill, crack one,
Remember scripture
threatens damnation
For merciless
judges who claim to see
With the
eyes of God. Sit together, or die
In the dusty
street, bleeding, screaming,
Crying not
to know the whys, the hows
Of ending up
in such a precarious place,
Trembling, stuck in the bloodshot center
Of the bullseye, flights flying the flags
Of doing it the same way differently.
You'd have to sit awhile and imagine it
As it is and not as you thought it was,
Good versus evil versus evil versus good
Where winning means everyone loses.
You'd have to sit with an open mind
And an open heart, ready to eat, to talk
Past winning and losing; us is them
Should be the prayer before that meal.
Of the bullseye, flights flying the flags
Of doing it the same way differently.
You'd have to sit awhile and imagine it
As it is and not as you thought it was,
Good versus evil versus evil versus good
Where winning means everyone loses.
You'd have to sit with an open mind
And an open heart, ready to eat, to talk
Past winning and losing; us is them
Should be the prayer before that meal.
