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Surrender [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-11-03  

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

__________________________________________

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.

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