This rhymed poem is an attempt to express the concerns many people have about the threat of war and violence, especially the threat of nuclear war.
Away From Our Door
by Ken Sanes
I would like to make
a simple request:
Please keep all forms of harm
away from our door.
Please keep away
the world’s false accusers,
along with the hypocrisy finders
and the minders
of other people’s business,
the internet spies
and the TV tellers of hi-tech lies.
Please keep them all
away from our door.
Pease also keep all inquisitions
away from our door,
including people who would
engage in book burning,
and who are driven
to interfere with learning,
people who are afraid
to let others be free,
but feel compelled to stop us
from knowing what we know
and seeing what we see.
Yes, please keep away
all people imbued
with aggressive intolerance
who mistake their own group
for the one and only ideal.
These are the
people
who would force us
to think what they think
and feel what they feel.
And please keep away
all of the conquerors,
driven by greed
and by grandiose dreams
of empire and glory.
Their dreams are a nightmare,
and they keep turning history
into a horror story.
But most significantly
please keep away people
who would use
the most dangerous technologies
to achieve terrible goals
involving power and hate.
As they amass their arsenals,
we are left uncertain
about the fate of our children
and about our own fate.
And we are forced to wonder:
Will nuclear death
come from a ship in a harbor?
Will it come from the sky?
We worry over the prospect
that the world we know will die.
So please keep away
everyone who is lost
to cruelty and hate,
and don't make us suffer
for the fallen state
of a world sick with violence.
Like everyone, we have
the right to be safe
and the right to be free.
And, in the name of humanity,
we’re disturbed by what we know
and appalled by what we see.
We’re disturbed by a world
full of deception and disguise,
and by widespread violence
that harms while it lies.
We yearn for peace,
but we're caught in a war.
Maybe together, we can
at least keep the worst of it
away from our door.