I need a clean cutting board if there is to be war.
Just a small space to make something good,
something that nourishes even as horror is visited on the world.
This is what will be taken from so many of us,
this moment to chop and grate and prepare,
this moment to let our minds rest on the mouths we will feed,
their smiles, their pleasure as they taste our caring, feel it rest in their bellies.
Have we always taken more than our fair share? I think so.
War does that, takes lives, many lives, and gives peace only to those who can forget all the mouths that will not be fed,
that will be made silent instead.
But I get my clean cutting board to start the day with,
a place I paint with food, try to make bright things, beautiful things that affirm life,
even as life bleeds away for so many.
I will have my clean cutting board, for today at least.
