Imagine

- Sidney Hall, Jr.

A word from a song
Printed brightly on a blue banner
Hung on the highest balcony.

Impossible to imagine
A war that has not begun,
A black-headed boy buried
Along with his soccer ball,
A young mother's broken breast
On a red sidewalk.

A word from a song.

Impossible to imagine
One quarter of a million people
In the streets trying to end
A war that has not begun.

Impossible to imagine the echo
Of incensed humanity
Twisting up the avenue
Between the white buildings,
Or the face of a man next to me in the march,
Under a thick blue hood,
Behind a grey beard,
Crying as secretly as he can.

from: Poets Against the War, Sam Hamill, Sally Anderson, et al, ed.
{BackStory}