The Claim

A pound of flesh should be that big a claim A hunger for violence only proves insatiable Only toward a dark future the possibility holds Should we all seek but the crimson path That while the going out may be sure The coming in rests only in the hands of violence We have yet to make peace a real need We have yet to lay to our hearts the miseries of war To hold up a thought of care; How many a life might suffer for the loss of one How a family might wither away should the breadwinner be slain How a child will so miss the warmth of a mother's touch How a mother will forever mourn her stolen desires How a father would die to loneliness It's that big a deal And it's that big a claim To think it through at least To embrace peace again: first with ourselves and then with others For survival is what comes out of violence But thriving is what comes out of peace So let's not only seek survival: let's thrive instead