CHOICE

The world outside me may be running amok,
but my mind and my heart can remain calm.

A dozen nations, including my own
are creating chaos
rattling their nuclear sabers
engaging troops to some end not clear.
I cannot control them;
I can choose calm within.

I am joined on street or freeway
amid a hundred cars,
each driver seeking to hurry fastest,
aiming toward the next stoplight.
I can arrive there in free passage
If I but remain calm.

In a distant city some tormented man
with or without a cause
grasps a gun, spews a dozen
Lifetimes of bullets into innocents.
I breathe prayers for solace and healing,
but can first choose to be calm.

There may again be a nine-eleven,
a Waco, an Oklahoma City,
some different University
will be savaged by terror,
but tomorrow is not yet here.
I choose to be calm in this day.

The Universe has healed before,
a redwood’s bark only scarred by lightning,
an ocean reclaimed from spewed oil,
new growth inching through volcano’s ash.
Surely calm will one day
be restored to the minds of man.

 

Gus Daum