Poem

[silentplaces]

victory

someday after we have taken away
the stupid and the fearful
the ignorant and unwilling
given them new occupations
in windowless but comfortably appointed
buildings outside town
buried them under new green foothills
planted in violets and clover

come one sunny morning we will wake
to the barrel of whatever
humane new kind of gun
in the small of our back
a voice so earnest and gentle
the birds won't even
leave the windowsill

telling us we are permitted one bag
for they are not
the unenlightened armies of old
but it is time to step aside
for the millennium of peace

the healing of the great division
the love that's coming
which we wouldn't even have
the words to understand
the envelopes of flower seeds
in the pockets of their clean soft clothes
rattling like bones