If only

 

image credit:  Dick Blick Art

As soldiers fight for love and peace
Not with guns and ammunition
Amidst the detritus of shed-down trees
Selfless and life-giving for their nation.

What a heart-rendering circumstance!
Blood-thirst, angst, hatred grown so wild!
They left their home without a second glance
His mother, back home, is prepared to lose her child.

She once wishes for a world of bloom
Flowers of harmony instead of guns
Colourful life instead of white and black gloom
Orange smile of petals and green life of ferns.

Written for Magpie Tales: mag 244