They Crowd Around My Heart

While I sit so safe in my cozy home,
a maternity hospital bombed,
babies and mamas blasted in Ukraine,
They crowd around my heart.

War so unheroic,
so uncreative a solution.
Not an achievement, always a loss
so small an act for beings
who have it in us to be so large.

While I sip my tea,
she grasps the boney hand
of her starving child in Sudan.
They crowd around my heart.

War so unheroic, a tragedy of diminution
for those who engineer it,
for those who promote its lies of valor,
for those who pay for the weapons,
for those who kill and are killed.

While I cry for the refugees,
there’s nowhere left in Gaza to flee.
They crowd around my heart.

War so very unheroic.
The killing moves the leaders play
with human gamepiece and citizen taxes
is opposite the courage
that lies in standing firm for robust peace.

Welcome to my heart, I will not turn away.
You are not forgotten,
dear grieving mothers, dear frightened brothers
dear babies who will never be.

War was not the way before.
Humans have known
how to live in harmony.
Now we must remember
how to be sheroes of peace.

I make a place for the suffering sisters
I think I can’t but my heart expands.
I make a place for all of them.
I let them in, I let them in.

©Susa Silvermarie 2024