(x = space)

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The Twenty-Sixth

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Now is the time

For peace on Earth

When there is no binding holiday

No slogan

No official reason

We must slosh inside the ordinary

Mind

Hope for the best

With hoping

Because there is a job to do

Gift wrap to amass

Maybe hope

For extended appreciation

Of the gift

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Here it’s cold

There is no snow

What is a child to do

Outside?

How is it where you are?

Well,

There are screens

And some controls

To occupy

Maybe made up of more

Than metal

And plastic

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War goes on

That’s literal

And horrible

I don’t think it paused

For the official reason

Yesterday

Aiming for infrastructure

Destroying daily need

Aiming for

The sanctity of home

And then the nation

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I mean Ukraine

Of course

But ask around

It’s happening elsewhere

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Maybe it can’t happen

I heard the bells on Christmas day

When the pastor had no hope

Except to write

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But today

Is the twenty-sixth

Only ordinary reasons

Will compel

Though that’s the only kind of peace

That lasts

The kind beside the holiday,

Lacking cachet

That’s global

Or across the street

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Peace in normal living

Pericardial

Beneath the cranial sutures

Satisfying daily muscles, too

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Yes, there is a Boxing Day

And turtles doves are due

And Hanukkah

The Festival of Lights

Completes

Its wonder

And bestows

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And there are other dates

In other places

We don’t know

And they matter

With or without the nations

Knowing

Or the neighborhoods

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What might be happening

Where you are

As your own

And annual thing?

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But with all lack of ritual

We have

There were storms

Taking lives

In New York

And in the South

There is the danger in

Deep, freezing temperatures

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And that’s here:

What’s happening with you?

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Lights are on in capital cities

Not lit for holidays

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There is no peace on Earth

The pastor said

And then the bells were heard

Through winter windows

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Bells can ring a lot

As angels can call

Inside desert skies

It doesn’t have to take a day

Or twelve days

Or their nights

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Listen

In undesignated times

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Through the daily and dark glass

We must

Practice

Belief in clarity

There is real peace

In store

Even after falling

(after Eden)

Perfection not required

No more than fancy dress

To come inside

To keep the outside, too

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Let’s have peace

Beyond the demons

Even the Skeksis

You might know

That’s also black

And brown and gray

With splashes of

Bright colors

That mean promise

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Inside our kitchens

And our resting places

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Where we study

Where our children play

Where we have our jobs

For pay

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Cessation

Then a waging peace

Everywhere that’s

Unextraordinary

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We may claim a season still

Or simply have the one

We have

Without an ego calling

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Ordinary peace, of course

Start with restraint

Then offer simply

Globally

On many worlds

With all groups

All numbers of inhabitants

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The words of love

Then actions

That profit nothing

Like the world

But keep the world

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Practices

That work in capitals

And under smaller domes

Homely contentment

In the happiness in others

Yes, that prosaic

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Don’t worry

If you must worry

The effect

Without expectation

Cross lines

Or move in shapelessness

Of time and place

Over, inside the world

And on all worlds

Like the song

Great and small

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C L Couch

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CNN

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”

The Dark Crystal

“All Things Bright and Beautiful”

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Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

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