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Pause the guns

So much to be done in a small human space,
such turmoil within, without disgrace

If all that conformity needs us to be
a shingle in the roof that reality

Requires, to shelter us from rebels that fall
like plummeting lead shot, molten in balls

From within the time-ticking eye, we call sanity,
Pause for a while and think on it all

Were you wrenched from the womb to subsist?
or did you come, willing traveller, answering the call

To thrive, more than exist?
Caught in a madman’s' vision of pain

Don't let custom overwhelm, nor haul you
from that simple miracle, you became-

Nor believe the fraught voices, without, within,
you have nothing at all to explain

Just this thought: be good, at what you do,
and are - pure, gentle, lost but humane.

About This Poem

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Region, Country: Tasmania, AUS

Favorite Poets: Glen Richards, Thomas Hardy, Phillip Larkin, Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Carol Ann Duffy , Ani DiFranco, Seamus Heaney, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Elliot

More from this author

Comments

vandiemenspeak

vandiemenspeak

9 years 4 months ago

Thanks Alid!

May the guns stay paused permanently, both those inside, and those outside of us ;) - Just a little meditation. Love your avatar pic by the way, is he/she Wing Chun?

Take care.

Chris.

alidzain

alidzain

9 years 4 months ago

Yo Chris

No, its silat. (I believe the martial art originates from the malays during the sultanate era.

Alid

Roscoe Lane

Roscoe Lane

9 years 4 months ago

I agree,

I agree with the every sentiment expressed in this poem. Well written . Regards Roscoe

vandiemenspeak

vandiemenspeak

9 years 4 months ago

Cheers Roscoe..

Always good to hear from someone who's seeing/understanding the same things unfolding in this mad world..

Thanks.

Chris.