Terrorisms

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.