Plate Tectonics

Here and there are these awful seams
Where people are well-organized
And equipped with well-made machines

For destroying other people
And their homes and their countryside,
Which, right now, they’re busy doing.

Elsewhere there are scattered embers,
The violence of lunatics,
Of patriots, of the police.

And there’s some strange relationship,
Always has been, of all this
To peace. People can be peaceful,

Can live whole lives clear of the seams.
Some even avoid all embers,
Never get caught in a riot

Or witness a single murder.
So it appears violence
Is not essential to people,

And yet it haunts those who’ve lucked out,
As does the question of whether
Violence has partnered with peace.