When Peace Breaks Out For Good
John Jiambalvo, NCR When peace breaks out for good,
our wounds will no longer be orphans.
The limbs scattered in a hundred directions
will know again the wholeness they lack.
The torturer will take off his twisted face
and become a faceless gentle animal.

When peace breaks out for good,
our language will wear its muscles large.
It will be easier to know God
when the people are not off at war.
There will be a balm of healing kindness in the trees
when peace breaks out for good.

The earth will not tremble so often
nor will souls dissolve in the fiery blast.
We will enjoy the privilege of living
among our young and our old.
We will begin to know ourselves
when the people have food, long life
and a crop of children around their knees.

When peace breaks out for good,
and we determine to make every just concern our own,
every poor person’s hope
our redeeming promise to life,
we will learn to reason benevolently
using fingers of thought to sense the truth.

When peace breaks out for good,
joyful nonsense will become the deepest sense.
The mountains will dance,
the winds will sing in chorus
and we will hear the music in all things
coursing through our veins.
We will walk in musical radiance.

When peace breaks out for good,
small animals at the forest’s edge will begin
talking softly about Plato.
The sea will give back its treasures and secrets
for which we will trade our dark armaments.
Death will mourn his loss of appetite.

When peace breaks out for good,
we will find our center in what we give.
Wise spirits will visit from afar to counsel us.
The prophets will arise from sleep
to chant new hope and power into the cosmos,
and old dreams will walk

out of the pages of dusty volumes to speak
a compassionate wisdom for this time and place.
Friends in a circle holding hands
will create a new way of being human,
and joy will last forever in our immortal souls
when peace breaks out for good.