PEACE ON EARTH

The end of the year and cleaning.
Empty out the closets. Remember this?
For years, I waved a flag of truce at you
    those bedsheets unfurled
there in your sleep shirt with "PIECE"
    right above the USMC
    and PEACE symbols
and you succeeded unimpeded
    with a piece of of my heart
    and mind, now cluttered
with more symbols and initials
    of PTSD and DOD
VA and Gatekeepers and more
proving that the way to PEACE
    is never peaceful
leaves us in pieces
hearts in tatters and stitches
    awarded in Purples
so that our nights were lost
not in loving and romance
but in nightmares and flashbacks
    and our personal wars
for our personal PEACE
    never ceased
nights of fights memorable
far more than pillow fights
and hurts that would never heal
    under any bandaid
or our once loving union
    couldn't even get laid
how we paid and paid and paid
lay down the word weapons
    fools settle scores
what the hell are we fighting for
    when love is the answer
love, not war, seems to cure cancer
you heard it, can't we all just get along
    I need a hug, you just shrug
how can we expect nations to agree
        when we
        cannot
give peace a chance
or have we forgotten 
messiahs and holy men first preach
love and goodness, fairness and healing
    do the same with romance
            just a reminder 
on the personal price of war
    for those who forgot
I've said my PIECE
may you rest in PEACE
    and for the price you paid
            may we forget you not
PEACE ON EARTH
EARTH IN ONE PIECE
wouldn't it have been nice, love
if we had managed to keep it together
in love forever

(c) 2002 Maggie Mink aka Rennie Lorca