How little in this life is left,
for us to see!
There are pitch-black cracks of hatred
in every Nation’s door.
More abused than used,
Peace-charters are like words
of recurring gossip.
What more are they,
for you and me?

A visible move of a printer, reports:
“One shell hit our house.  Thank God,
we were not hit,” a certain, Samouni said,
in a voice, so weak.
“We were asleep, when tanks,
and planes struck,” recounts, a boy of thirteen.
Looking beyond, in a blink of an eye,
they could all be gone!
Is this the way to live?

Peacemakers!
Where are you?
Are you asleep?
Stop War! Stop War!
Take the hammer to ‘It’, first,
Then speak of: Peace.

If not Hezbollah and Hamas,
then who?
If not India and Pakistan,
then who?
If not Tibet and China,
then who?
If not America and Iraq,
then who?

If not the Taliban in Afghanistan,
then who?
In Africa, who?
Peacemakers! Peacemakers!
Enough with your rights and wrongs.
Stop War! Stop War!
Take the hammer to ‘It’, first,
then speak of: Peace.

2009

Geeta Chhabra