Wage Peace

By Judyth Hill, Sapello, N.M.

(Used by permission)

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children
  and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion
and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds,
clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.