Remember retaliation after 9/11’s devastation?

The choice to continue the degradation

Rather than stand up

And be the nobler nation,

While more people showed up in anti-war demonstration

Than

Ever

Before?

 

The streets of London, Paris, Washington D.C.

Were full of warning – a scream – “Don’t you SEE?

By doing this you will multiply the enemy?”

And so you did.

And so it is.

So this is the case.

For each ‘enemy’ taken down,

 

Two grow in his place.

And we look on in horror?

From where came all these monsters?

It happened while​

you were sleeping

 

Your own hands fostered

Them.

 

You refused to wake up.

 

Sleep too long, a nightmare ensues

Emulate the enemy and we all lose.

Make a pretense of “response” by mirroring evil acts,

all the evil in the world’s dark corners reacts.

 

Make a song and dance of “justice,”

mistaking strength for numbness.

He’ll be glad that you did.

He’s been waiting to meet you

Since he was a kid

When we killed his father.

I’m not saying “Never kill,”

So don’t throw Churchill at me.

Hitler stopped early is better, obviously.

I’m saying check the intention. Then check it again.

 

And when the Whole World’s Peaceful 

Unite

On what’s needful, 

Listen to them.

 

Most war is Greed, in Need’s clothing,

Getting funded by our feelings.

While violence leads to itself

So much more often than it does healing.

 

Sheep no more.

In 2001, my disturbance earnest and plain.

“How can bombing them make us safe?

We’ll be the next generation’s aim!

The tattoos of their wounds—

in their hearts, deep engrained.”

 

There is an idea in all real-igion—

the true, mystical part, not fanaticism.

It says problems come from people not being received.

See, there is an essence of life that wants to be seen.

We’re to give of ourselves and be known, seen, and heard,

And evil develops from that flow’s being disturbed.

 

Throw all your anxieties in the ocean of fear.

The tides will return them,

They won’t disappear.

And when the wave comes back 

with all you’ve tossed,

You’ll be

​Thrashing

 for shore.  

 

Integrity lost. 

Do we get yet,  that our safety’s the cost?

Stock the ocean with as much shock and awe as you wish

We are growing the monsters. Making sure they enlist.

If “secure” was the target, 

It’s safe to say, we’ve missed.

 

Because, we are one organism,

One whole ego-system.

We can ignore and oppress the core of some of us.

But the whole body suffers when a part becomes cancerous.

 

Perhaps the reason peace seems so elusive

is that it has not been the goal.

This test is conclusive.

We are touchable.

 

Enough rehearsal.

This cancer is reversible.

 

We are awake.

We see, hear and know you.

 

​You are not​

 your hate. 

 

~

 

Relephant Read:

What Are We Doing to Eachother?

~

Author: Alice Frank

Apprentice Editor: Carlene Kurdziel / Editor: Renee Picard

Photo: Via the author