Bayonet - Seeming

«Make me an instrument of your peace»

That’s what she said when the smoke bore silence

When all the fighting slowed

When touching skin was still

Not close enough to find the soldiers nearby

'said, «Make me an instrument of your peace

Your peace as kind as an air raid siren»

She cursed the dawn, still and cold

And said it’s better to feel

Another person than do no violence

She said: «When your bullets are gone

And you still can’t connect

With the one you love

I’ll be your bayonet»

I showed her chessboards and cathedrals

Translating oceans into bishops' footsteps

That space between us glows

And passion means to kill

And bones are no more than myths of doctors

But with her hands I planted saplings

And with her axe, saw them grow then crumble

Where every sparrow’s nest

Cast off its eggs like sandbags

As it flew to heaven

She said: «When your bullets are gone

And you still can’t connect

With the one you love

I’ll be your bayonet

And when your cover is blown

Your hiding place is found

I will be your revealer

Deep underground»

She’s the rays from the sky

Burning cancer to skin

She’s the jurist who smiles

Convicting Anne Boleyn

She’s a feast without end

Bursting all who partake

And when I raise that white flag

Then the war starts again