In Case of War
In case of war, break glass.
Gather the children.
Pour rice through their outstretched fingers into the fire.
Conjure innocence,
the turtle’s long swim, eggs buried where the tide
brings broken toys.
In the mind’s fixed eye, a caravan of arms chugs north
through mushroom clouds
seared on the retinas of gray-haired children,
born in a cold peace
under banners of war, the silks we use
to wrap the fallen.
In case of war, bow low as the moon calls us
by our childhood names.
The price of memory?
A heart that keens.
In case of war, gather bones shattered like glass.
And the children.
Pour rice through their open hands
into the fire.
(The Napkin Project with artist Ellen Sollod: an anti-war mail art piece delivered to more than 50 world leaders and opinion shapers during the run-up to the war in Iraq.)
