Where Peace Stands

Peace.
Our peace.
Peace on Earth.

Where?

Beneath the flags?
Behind the borders?
Between the graves?
Beside the mourners?
In hands
no ceasefire saves?

The gunfire stops.
We still flinch
at every door
that slams too hard.

And suffering
needs no gun:
an empty plate,
a voice undone.

Before our borders—
tooth and claw.
To feed. To guard.
We ask for more.

We know the hurt.
Still, we wage war.
Then centuries.
And more.
And more.

Is peace a word
we say in vain?
A prayer drowned out
by others’ pain?

The forests burn.
The oceans rise.
The wild retreat
beneath our skies.

Our mother bears
the weight we make.
How much more
is hers to take?

We strip her skin.
We choke her streams.
We taint the air.
Where wings once stirred,
the broken branches lean.

The world we wound.
The wounds within.
How long can we
go on like this?

How much must burn
before we learn?
How much must break
before we wake?

One of us
once stood here, too.
Reached for those
we never knew.

Broke the bread.
Made room for more.
Asked us what
our neighbours bore.

Turned the tables.
Faced the blame.
Met our violence.
Loved the same.

A voice that knew
what love would cost,
yet spoke before
all hope was lost.

He bore our strife.
Still, he was peace.

And still that spirit
breathes through dust,
through all this Earth
left in our trust.

Peace on Earth.

Where?

Within the breath
before we speak.
Within the strength
to turn a cheek—

the courage
of an open hand,
to reach across,
to help one stand.

Our peace means little
kept behind a wall.

We can be
where peace stands
steadfast.

Shall I?
Shall we?

We must.

For International Day of Peace, I wanted to look beyond the words we repeat and ask what they truly mean in a world still divided by borders, conflict, hunger and fear.

A world we continue to wound.
A world that is wounding us, too.

This poem does not pretend peace is simple or painless. It searches through the harm we cause one another, the suffering carried by our shared Earth and the example left by one who knew conflict, yet still stood for peace.

Perhaps peace is not only something we wait for.

Perhaps it begins wherever one of us is willing to stand.

My small contribution to a much larger cry for change: Where Peace Stands.