Operation Infinite Justice
has long now winged its worrisome way
East, crossing continents and cultures
menacing peoples alien to us
and us to them.
-
Finite bombs have fallen,
and may yet fall, inflicting
infinite suffering
in retribution for our
infinite suffering.
Innocents perish
in punishment
for the perishing
of innocents.
-
War, we are told,
is the way of history
the way to Enduring Peace.
But we could rewrite history
as we enter the 21st century
waging not a war, but a crusade --
against global injustice
the dark mother of desperate acts.
-
Peace means inclusion, then connection.
Inclusion makes growing fields
instead of killing fields.
Connection shores up islands of possibility
in an ocean of goodwill.
Children know these things,
learned hard but learned well
in every kindergarten and playground
on the planet.
-
If it takes a village to raise a decent child,
it may take a child's sense of decency
to make our world -- the Global Village --
a decent place for us all to live.
Robert Johnson
is
Professor and Chair of the Dept of
Justice, Law and Society, at
American University.
Honorable Mention
2001 Annual Poems of Social Concern Competition, Black Bear Review Issue 34, Spring/Summer 2002:11.
(c) Robert Johnson
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Other poems by Robert Johnson:
"Village
Life" and "Nine One One"
and "Living Free Is the Best Revenge"
Johnson's first
published collection of poems, Poetic
Justice is now available.
Many sample poems, contents and ordering information are available
in this Adobe .pdf file.
Amazon.com:
Poetic Justice: reflections on the Big House, the Death House
& the American Way of Justice
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