Today's poem is by Eric Paul Shaffer

How to Love Your Enemies
        homage to a fierce Ukranian woman

Walk slowly along the forty miles of tanks
                    jamming narrow country lanes
between farms of wheat, barley, and corn

open to the horizon. Spend daylight pacing
the dirt of the land you love and urging
            the invaders to return home to lovers,

sisters, and mothers who long to welcome
            a retreat with embraces and kisses.
As you go, offer a handful of sunflower
seeds to each armed man. When the soldiers

die, the flesh, blood, and bone will become
            new soil as these boys are buried
with pockets full of seeds for the future
            green fields radiant with sunflowers.

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Copyright © 2024 Eric Paul Shaffer All rights reserved
from Green Leaves
Coyote Arts
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission