When man was humankind
The world knew peace
Now we are human
Consumed with self-love and to others’ needs blind
And only kind to our own kind
Peace smashed into many parts
What once flourished is now in pieces
Our new kind of knowledge
Push us to the edge
Of chaos…of mutual destruction
That knows no bound
Day by day, peace seems far away
We spend more preparing for warfare
Than we do for humans’ welfare
Divided by labels
Of gender, of tribe, of religion
Of status, of interest, of sheer ignorance
We trample on others’ rights
Just so we can go fare better
We worry for dearth of peace
And hurry to prepare for war
We commit so much to arms and less to alms
Time, money, men…all that it takes
To prove a point
That we are stronger, faster and better than another
The monster we try to stop
We have become, how come?
Children sleep with their parents at dusk
And wake up as orphan, if they even do, at dawn
Parents lose their dreams for their children
Yet, lose their children right before their eyes
Men make the metals that now destroys fellow men
We claim we want peace
But we’ve torn nations into pieces
Man from fellow man is not safe
Except for the lifeless in the grave
You have two and what belongs to a man with one you still crave
You talk and act like a saint just to make another your slave
We live in the city with the mentality of man of the era of caves
Moses helped Israelites with his special stave
The Big Man will rather use his special knowledge to create a social enclave
Like oil and water, like peace and poverty
You set to fire another’s abode
No soft cushion, no shade, no place to call a home
What you find at your door is what you deserve
You planted grief in their hearts and draw tears from their tears
How come you won’t live in fear?
Of the people you destroyed their peace
And left their lives in pieces
Peace in pieces
Everyone wants his piece
At the cost of another’s peace
But if we can all put together our pieces
Maybe we will all find a whole peace
Just maybe…
Written by Abbas Agbaje
