Let’s do it.
The last bullet has been fired
And the last shell and the last rocket
And the last canister of poison gas
And the last heat-seeking missile
And the last anti-missile missile
And the last torpedo.
The last bomb has boomed into oblivion
And the last cold corpse of warfare
Has been buried in the earth
Which enfolds it with compassion
The last gun and the last submarine and the last tank
The last naval vessel and the last war plane and the last war drone
The last military truck the last minefield
Have all been rendered forever non-operational
And the last barracks training camp operational HQ
Ammunition dump command bunker nuclear test site spy satellite
Dismantled decommissioned deactivated
And rendered forever non-operational
And the last soldier has been paid off
And enrolled in a retraining program
And the last sailor and the last airman and the last marine
And the last officer and the last spy and the last private military contractor
And the last employee and the last executive
Of the last military-industrial complex (scheduled for prompt closure)
And the last war minister and the last arms salesman
Have all been debriefed and enrolled in retraining programs
And The last war film war novel war poem
Have all been turned into compost or landfill
Along with the last consignment of unused body bags
Military survival rations new and used uniforms
Flak jackets tin helmets gas masks and camouflaged backpacks
And the last letter home from the last front line
Has been read, brooded over and ceremoniously burnt
And the last salute has been made to the last war parade
And the last video war game has been electronically erased
And the last plastic gun has been recycled
And the last toy soldier, the very last toy soldier
Buried with full military honors
And the last Last Post has been played
And the last 21-gun salute has been fired
And the echoes and the smoke have faded away
And the smell of the smoke
And the echoes of the echoes
Have faded away
Into silence
Into the clean sweet peaceful air.
Did we miss anything? Leave anything out?
Bows and arrows? Daggers? Knives? Stones? STONES?
Wooden clubs? Do we burn all the branches
Grind every stone to dust? Lengths of rope…
Strands of wire… Needles… Hammers… Chainsaws.
On and on it goes. Guard dogs. Whips.
Razor blades and lasers.
Hands. Feet. Teeth. TEETH?
We can bite one another to death can’t we?
Do we extract everyone’s teeth?
Sever all hands and feet?
We’d die. We’d all die.
Slow down a minute.
Let’s think this through.
We always hurt each other. Kill each other.
Always have and probably always will.
It’s here, inside us.
Drives what we pour so much money into
What we invent What we manufacture.
What we are trained to operate.
What we take into our hands and use.
It’s all inside us.
That’s where it all starts.
The world we live and die in
Shows us who we are
Shows us which impulses and energies we choose to follow.
I dunno.
If we could teach our children…
If all the nations could sign a peace pact and…
If all the women in the world…
If we could learn to love one another…
If we could all agree not to…
If we all prayed together for peace…
Maybe
if I could find peace
in myself
--Emmanuel W., Adult