By J Ann Crowder
Politics, what say ye?
May you play the game fair?
This is only a wanton wish
A fools hope
My hope
And I grow weary of you, politics
For a fools hope is vain
It does not matter which end of the fence we vie
Lying Devils are your tricks
Your tongue lures in a flock of cheap masked masquerades
I don’t think they see how foolishly they are being taken in
I abide here on this slump, on a moderate molded clay clinging tight to my moderate beliefs, my own independence scathing in the face of channels filled with talking heads and brewing arguments with fingers pointing every which way accept within themselves
I shun those fingers pointing
At the hijab clad woman they point
Don't they realize? She, is my friend
And they condemn my Jewish friend stumbling upon cracks at her wailing wall
And they hate my Christain friend praying alongside Golgotha’s hill
They don’t hear my own cries begging them to stop with their pointing
I’m her standing at the foot of Golgotha's hill
I’m her spilling my tears across Jerusalem and over Galilea
I’m her, survivor of the crusades, living across river Jordan underneath the shelter of my hijab
We ate supper together and watched our children play
They were happy and conditions did not exist between us
My children ate the rice of the hijab clad woman and touched the hem of her scarf
I listened as she prayed thrice in the day
I listened as if her prayers were songs melding with my own prayers
Our three prayers became one when we climbed to our unconditional love of humanity, bringing sanity to our bleeding ears and hoarse cries
My Jewish friend is no different in my eyes
I cherished her prayers just as I cherished my own
Our prayers reached a destination we all wanted them to arrive
Our words rung in harmonious tune
We prayed for humanity
The colors of our skins and the language of our tongues made no difference
We three cherished our abiding distinctions because we saw our hearts were painted the same color red
We three cherished hearts wishing upon an olive leaf
We grasp olive leaves, careful not to crush them
Politics tells us no
Politics wants to crush our wishes
Politics wants to strangle our olive branches until they no longer breath
True humanitarians pay politics no mind
We vie to plant these olive branches near and far reaching, from continent to continent
Only olive branches can smother crooked fingers pointing every which way accept within themselves
Only olive branches will burry wounds and scars from words pointing like daggers, sharp
As sharp are tongues of hate
Words of love thus sheathes pointed daggers, abating them
Thus I plead with those who may lend wisdom’s ear
Stop turning channels spewing those beliefs of politics and their untruths hypnotizing
Turn them off and listen to hearts speaking truth of solidarity
Truth in the existence of love amongst different persons of thought and religion
Underneath our skins we are all the same
Politics hides the truth from us
The truth is only we three will stomp out evil’s flame
Only if we clench hands and stop being enemies as politics has taught us to do
As her Jihad becomes mine, and I pray with her at her wailing wall, and they both walk with me on the road to Golgotha's hill
In this "bearing the burdens of the other"
In plight and storm
We thrice carry olive branches and their healing salve
We plant them at our homes and across Galalea and Jordan’s ancient river
We plant olive branches in Syria’s fields, nourishing them by ashes left behind
Olive tree blossoms drown out bellows of war cry
They scream aloud into a single droning echo until hate is seen as the hollow pit of nothingness it is
I plead for all to see such power concealed in the olive branch's blossoms and healing oils
Power only wisdom can truly grasp as hearts are tamed by unconditional love
When we grasp hands in this knowledge, politics becomes the farce he is and hate is given back to its damming abyss
Olive branches will then abound in forever song ringing like gentle bells of truth on our ears and on our hearts colored in the same red
I despise stereotypes of all kinds and labels. Our differences should cause appreciation not hate. Wherever there is hate our differences give us advantage over it if we all unite against it. If we don't unite against hate and terrorism, then hate and terrorism win. When we hate each other because of our differences hate and terrorism win. Politics is on neither of our sides, not truly. I wrote this because I am tired of politics dictating how we should feel. We need to find truth by looking within not by looking at news channels and following the media. Written April 4th 2016.