Think Peace
Our Children's Future
For centuries you have shed blood on the hot desert sand.
It stands to reason you love your land.
Politics, religion and revenge make all of us blind.
One common ground we need to find.
Our children and your children are the key,
to break this cycle, we currently see.
We share a special feeling, we do not stand alone,
when we welcome the night and see their peaceful faces sleeping safe at home.
This priceless love for our children, we can not compare,
to a mere bag of gold or a diamond that is rare.
So I hope you can see,
even though we may live across the sea,
we should all want our children to grow,
in a world united, that hasn’t a foe.
157553531681
Nightmare
The wind runs cold and howls,
as it blows through the home's dismembered bowels.
Dark red patches stain the floor,
where the century old rug used to lay by the door.
Broken remnants of furniture lay all around.
They still rest where they were blown to the ground.
If you closed your eyes and filtered out the night,
you would soon pick out the echoing fright.
It begins with the gentle, rhythmic breathing, of peaceful children sleeping.
Then abruptly interrupted by the night's senseless bombing.
The children scream and cry out in pain,
but soon quiet down as only their lifeless bodies remain.
This is too painful a memory for any parent to bear.
Please think of our children, Ahmed, Tommy, Leila or Blair.
They deserve to sleep through the night,
and peacefully welcome the sun's first light.
The future lies in their hands,
but how can we give them the world as it stands.
North hating South and East hating West.
The moment to talk is now, stand out above the crowd.
It's not too late, let's make them proud.
157553531681
Friendship
Side by side, two boys hike through the woods in wonder,
each imagining he was a famous explorer.
Always aware of each other's presence,
that's how it is, with friendship's essence.
They jump and they climb through difficult terrain.
Trudging forward, even in the light spring rain.
They urge each other on, all goals realistic,
their will and endurance increased, through a friendship truly synergistic.
Their enjoyment soon turns to fear,
as one boy screams out for all to hear.
In a blink of an eye their joyful hike,
turned into a life threatening fight.
Slowly advancing to look over the ledge,
a boy sees his friend dangling from a crumbling edge.
So close, but still too far to give him two helping hands,
he prays for guidance, right where he stands.
Struck by inspiration, he sees a small crevice.
One false move and he falls down the precipice.
He inches downward and reaches his frantic friend.
One second more and his life would have been at an end.
Both safely back on the flat ground,
the boy embraces his friend, "Mohammed, I'm glad you were around.
You risked your life and you saved mine.
I am in your debt, 'till the end of time."
"Johnny, you don't owe me anything my friend, my brother.
We live in one world, we should all love each other."
157553531681
Memories
The days pass by faster,
your body, you can't seem to master.
Limbs ache with exertion,
medications taken to aid the digestion.
Your mind stops thinking of the fresh and new,
and evolves into remembering the past you knew.
By the time you realize you are but a speck in the sand,
it is usually too late to caress your little one's hand.
So much time was given to unimportant positions,
your life passed you by without intermissions.
Wishes now are of going back in time,
to culture more little smiles for your memories at bedtime.
One has but one fragile human life,
it is short and fast and can dull like a knife.
Memories are all we have at the end.
Don't have ones that you need to amend.
157553531681
Reflection
It is true what they say, “We reap what we sow”,
we see our reflection "IF" we see our kids grow.
A child's will is simple and very pliable,
decreased ability to reason is undeniable.
They trust completely their father and mother,
with others' thinking they do not bother.
A parent's show of hate and mistrust,
envelopes their mind like an impenetrable crust.
Caring, patience and love is what they should see,
to better our world our goal should be.
This can not happen if we rot our own seeds,
very few flowers grow in a sea of weeds.
157553531681
Stimuli
SCREAMING - CRYING - YELLING - WAILING
Dreadful eerie sound undeserved,
stirring their young auditory nerve.
SMOLDERING – ROTTING – PUTRIFYING
Dreadful enveloping stench,
reprehensible smell with which to drench.
CONTAMINATED - SPOILED – SOURED
Dreadful taste so undeniable,
once encountered so unforgettable.
LACERATING – BURNING - BRUISING
Dreadful pain once inflicted,
avoidance behavior grows unrestricted.
ANNIHILATION – ELECTROCUTION – EXECUTION
Dreadful visions of torture and death,
a man's right to live violated at his last breath.
Horrid stimuli to experience and find,
within the hollows of a young child's mind.
157553531681
Thunder
The child slept peacefully dreaming of the sea and all its wonder,
only to be woken with distant rumbling sounds over yonder.
"Mother!" He screamed out dazedly.
"It's okay my child," she responded vigilantly.
She embraced her son tightly in her protective arms,
hoping he didn't also hear the bomb alarms.
"What was that noise?"
"Thunder." She responded in a calming voice.
"Why is it thundering so much lately, Mother?"
"The skies must be angry. Don't you bother."
Her son trembled within her arms. "I am afraid."
"Sleep child. It will soon fade."
Minutes passed and the rumbling subsided,
but flickering lights erased the darkness as neighboring roofs ignited.
She closed her eyes and wished for peace,
still feeling the void of her husband recently deceased.
"I love you mother," the boy said half asleep.
"I love you child." She began to weep.
157553531681
Darkness
Into the darkness he scurried,
constantly told he need not worry.
He hid from the eyes up above,
a great unknown for a young one in love.
The love of life and family was a new emotion,
we all discover as we mature, it is not a new notion.
Continuously moving with no time to play,
still very confused why they could not stay.
He missed his friends. He missed his school.
His education lacked, but he was no fool.
Grown-ups around him and those far away,
can't agree on a few things, to his dismay.
Unnatural growth for him and for many is at hand,
unless we as grown-ups can agree on politics, religion or land.
They don't care about who said what or a position to defend,
just to love and be loved and to play with a friend.
Think of them the next time there is a dispute,
a young tree in the darkness will never bear fruit.
157553531681
The Ocean
For billions of years the ocean has pounded the shore.
Unrelentless day after day, though you pray or implore.
It shows no mercy. It shows no weakness.
It'll destroy anything in its path, good or full of wickedness.
Its destruction is blind, pure and natural.
You can not compare to human destruction, which is purely cultural.
Has not the ability to think and reason made us better than nature?
If not, our advantage is lost and we have no future.
Children will play with each other not caring of religion, sex or race.
Their interaction is simple, no matter the face.
They are better than nature, their being, untainted.
Sadly, history shows, their being, is slowly repainted.
A transformation occurs, they become a human ocean.
Hate takes root, the beginning of cultural destruction.
We need to be better. We must break new ground.
We can not do this, with so much hatred around.
We need to stop dwelling. We can not change the past.
If we can not overcome our differences now, human beings will not last.
In the history of the earth, we are a miniscule segment.
Easily erased from this planet by a stray meteor fragment.
If we destroy humankind, and our children we so much adore,
At the end of it all, the ocean will still pound the shore.
157553531681
Bilateral
Religious conflict. Political conflict. Cultural conflict.
Chidren's healthy growth we do restrict.
In an area where so much hatred persists,
bilateral thinking desisits.
When two fight only one winner will prevail,
when no one fights two winners triumphantly hail.
One can not lose if one does not fight.
If you do not fight you don't have less might.
On the contrary, your personal light,
in the eyes of all, will shine very bright.
The light of triumph, the light of reason,
shines brighter than the sun, no matter the season.
Be a beacon of hope for your family and your community,
peacefully talk out your disputes and commit to world unity.
157553531681
Tired Soul
God... Allah... Nirvana... Brahman... Univesal Mind.
The truth we struggle for decades to find.
We don't need to know them All.
We just need to know One, for then One becomes them All.
Oneness in nothing. Oneness with all.
Our enlightenment is lost whenever we fall.
The soul gets tired during the search, don't rush to your end,
for then the struggle will begin again.
157553531681
The Search
The darkness slowly relinquished its hold on the nocturnal upheaval,
only to show dust and debris creating a haze at roof top level.
Scores of small footprints now blemish the blanket of dirt overthrow,
surely preferring to be gracing a virgin beach or fresh white snow.
The paths aren't straight but tumultuous in nature.
They show the search pattern of a small one in a bleak and frantic fervor.
Tears pouring down his tired face,
finding his parents within the rubble, it is a race.
Without success and all alone in this hostile environment,
he'll surely die, another victim of modern armament.
So far away and yet within reach,
children all over the world suffer while we preach.
Politicians so focused on financial gain and political success,
overlook their reason for being, to support the incapable and help the oppressed.
157553531681
Guns Guns Guns
Guns aren't the reason. Guns aren't the blame.
It's human nature, the reason for their fame.
Guns are but a tool for modern man.
Guns can put food on the table, that's not out of a can.
Guns can save lives.
Guns can take lives.
When confronted by thugs with your child in your arm,
a gun can deter your child from coming to harm.
But when used for evil, or evil intentions are the game,
a gun, a knife, or even a stick can kill or maim.
In an ideal society or an ideal world,
guns wouldn’t have been created or have taken hold.
Let's fix this world so that the only reason for their support,
is for their use in the Olympics and or in sport.
157553531681