How is it there is
less to reassure

when we regard the
history of our world?

Perhaps it is the
wishful thinking

from all that music,
poetry and other

peace paraphernalia
in a recent past

that urged us to this
former expectation.

Perhaps it is our
children, teaching,

relative wealth too,
and imagining

language would
matter more widely.

Now there are too
many words framed

in quotation marks –
to name one modern

mystery that scares.
So what is ‘peace’

when there are so
many alternatives?