Surrender
I call out to Israelis and Palestinians
To break a glass beneath their feet
And join a compromise akin to marriage
Where two peoples surrender to each other.
Instead of "We will never forget"
As a catchphrase kept tattooed on the heart,
Surrender the past in which each has been victimized
By the other.
Palestinians, it is time to give up Hamas
And its policies of death
And acknowledge in mass
Israel's right of nationhood –
Cell phones may come in handy.
Israelis, release your control and stop
The degradation of a population
And treat with respect
The forming of a Palestine
As a free and independent country –
A change in leadership may come in handy.
As a realist I doubt
These words will be heeded
Today,
But both parties may become partners,
Someday soon
As enemies that fight become friends.
**
But you and I have choices now
In our lives to surrender
The chains of the past
That bind our present actions,
To give up
Those memories of dagger wounds
We keep refreshing –
The pain of rejection
The abuse of the powerful
The fear of poverty
The physical grief of war and crime,
Even simple misunderstandings
That never are corrected –
They fill the space of our heads
With a repeating playlist of blames,
Shackling our behavior
To ones of pettiness
And the endless recycling of
Diminished lives.
Let them go,
Surrender to now
To where you are now
To who you are now
Stop formulating the future
With cloudy visions of could be's
Beyond your control,
Let reality return,
That is neither the grievances of your past
Nor the fantasy expectations of your tomorrows.
Surrender to your true self.
Carl Scott Harker ©2023
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My latest book of poetry for children and adults is now available on Amazon, you can find it here: The HedgeHog and Other Selected Poems.