Safety Zone

Still Life on Kitchen Table by Léon Bonvin, via Wiki Commons

The circle will hold, women!

We drew it with our knives and

draw strength intertwining lives

and we look with open eyes

upon each other’s safe zones—

quite often not in our homes—

The spells we cast in our rooms

don’t reach as far as our schools

and so, my sisters and friends—

blade in smiles and hands in hands

circle with us now and pray

that justice will come our way.

Shhh, dear one—good only! Know

we will reap just what we sow

and dare not imagine what

God and Lady Justice ought

to bestow on enemies

though they force us to our knees.

Is "bring back the children" too

much to ask?  That they haunt who

kidnap them or show us, do,

how to find survivors?  Woo

any power that be, anew?

Help us find ways to break through?

The circle will hold, women!

Pull in our rooms, schools and streets,

Call in sisters, mothers and

daughters—draw it with love and

knives and intertwining lives—

look out there with open eyes.

Written for Fireblossom Friday

at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

(though she asked for spooky Halloween fun, and this is spooky serious) 

Copyright © 2014 S.L.Chast