2nd Place - 6th Grade

Anna Johnson, Minnesota

WAR & PEACE

WAR
As the dark heavens
weep
shedding tears
of anguish and pity
and the dark
brick buildings
spew
their billowing clouds
of grimy bitterness
into the
feeble
war-torn world,
the bitter stench
of sorrow
fills my heart.

A little boy
tugs at my sleeve.
His clothes are damp
from the pelting rain.
His eyes,
red from endless crying,
gaze into mind
pleadingly.
His curly hair,
unkempt and matted,
hangs string like
about his head.
Sadness
despair
hopelessness
cling to his
mere existence.
He reeks
of death
and war.

He
does not believe
in what
he cannot grasp.
In
what no way
and yet in every way
is possible.
He
does not see
that the unthinkable
is truly possible.
He
does not know
that
every individual
to truly
make it be
must become one
and act.
Not wish.
Act.
Together.

It
is a truly difficult task
but there
is hope.
It has never
been before.
It seems truly
impossible.
It
does not exist
in his
world.

He
asks me
a single
question.
Through
the gloom
and the fog
and the loneliness,
Over the sounds
of crying
and tragedy
and ugliness
he whispers
"What is peace?"

PEACE
The sun
a golden orb
sends
dancing patterns
of light
through the canopy
of thetrees.
The colors
of the jungle
blend
and envelop
all.
The flowers
of
every color
imaginable,
stir
in the gentle wind.
They scatter
their petals
onto the soft floor of jade
beneath them.

She
steps firmly
onto
the crisp
earth.
She
has the pride
of a panther
the grace
of an exotic bird.
She
cocks her head
listening
to the
flow of the waterfall
in the distance
and moves
artfully
through the
underbrush.
She
admires with awe
her beautiful
world.

She
does not know
of the
ugliness
of the
outside world.
Of the
terror
and the
destruction.
She only knows
of the harmony
and of the brilliance
in her life.
And she turns
to me
her amber eyes
shine innocently
and she whispers
into the still
the quiet
the peaceful world
"What is war?"

The
two children
could not be more
different.
He
lives in poverty
constant fear
a world of
war.
She
lives in splendor
and radiance.
A world of peace.

They
are not aware
of
one another's lives.
One another's presences.
Yet their lives
could touch
and extend
to the opposite
side.

She
does not know
of war now,
but she could
glimpse it.

He
cannot
comprehend
a life
like hers.
He
only knows
of his own.
And still,
for him,
peace is possible.
Peace
is possible.

Kids Philosophy Slam Home Page