Peace with Justice by Peter Bankson

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

“Desert Places” by Robert Frost

The world is closing in around us.
More people than there’s room for,
wanting more of everything
until the very globe groans
from the wrappers of their getting.
Desert places, where the emptiness
reminds us of how small we are,
retreat before the concrete truck.
We look at one another with suspicion.
I wonder if your greed
for what I know you do not need
will stop my getting
what I know I have an inborn right to.
And there’s THEM.
THEY want the world.
Oh, not my part,
they’ll let me be,
no matter what.
Free enterprise
has taught us something
terribly important:
There is not enough to go around,
but I can have full measure
if I help you get a little bit,
keep THEM from taking anything away,
and make you think you have enough.
When I’ve decided that I have enough,
some Spirit wind
brings rain clouds on my inner spaces,
makes the desert bloom
with flowers I can give away,
and grants me time to care
if even THEY have flowers on their table.
What is enough? What does it take
to fill your life with meaning,
satisfaction,
and the love to live again another day?