We Can't Go On Meeting Like This

I am often propositioned by Jehovah's Witnesses.
We both know how the dialogue is meant to go.
I know this because every time we meet I listen.
Unlike many, I treat them as if they are real.
Because I avoid being dismissive or frustrated
I make a space which makes for mutual respect,
a space that last until the end of that conversation.

Would that I could be as calm, composed,
and as unprovoked by everything else in life.

The War On Peace

I could not define terrorism if I tried,
much less would I go to war against it.
But I know that with the increasing advance
of the culture of arms and war,
from Medieval Islam's video nasties
competing with the U.S. military's
self promotion through virtual reality
aggression in the name of patriotism,
militarism will always out-gun
the civil culture where the ability
to drop our guard with each other
defines our safety-where life
is about more than fight, flight,
or being frozen inside.
Humour should be our best weapon
against overweening self importance
but guns will put us on our guard
in more ways than we see-or realise.