The Shape of Peace
A cast iron horse on a block
of oak serves as bookend
on the top shelf of the pine case
against the wall. The metal
form features a saddle, but no rider.
A fore-hoof, raised in readiness,
never falls to action.
The next battle never begins.
The noble warrior is lost.
I see the shape of peace
in the beast’s stillness, absence
of the human driver.
Today’s Unrest Summary
Midtown irritability index
midday today
a new record high,
nine raised fists,
compared with yesterday’s
eight point five.
Today it’s a ten in LA.
Put together with recent levels
of time squeeze, triggered
helplessness, and TV
body image tease pressure,
we can see how these clouds
of doubt and anger hover
over the entire metropolis.
Manufactured appetite measures
also peaking on our meters—
trend appears associated
with higher-definition depictions
in magazines and on most screens.
Meanwhile, Main Street money hunger
averages seven slashed S’s.
Satellite scans of unpredicted powder
ignitions, worldwide, last
twenty-four hours, higher
than expected by thousands,
and no national
holiday here or in China.
We’re at a loss for major factors.
Again, on the local front,
assaults by strangers along
busy thoroughfares—our figures
show today’s rating as
three flat noses. So,
be careful out there. Also,
the window and bridge splat count is down.
Blasted corpses, by morgue report,
surprisingly steady, amid
conjecture of a calm-before-
the-storm effect, expecting
clustered rampages by summer.
Kids cutting overall holding,
vein-to-artery ratio falling.
Our international desk sends this—
a note of commentary:
Global villa-to-hovel continuum
thinning out in the middle could be
crucial. Hostility
fills in where face-to-face
experience hasn’t got a chance.
Our aside: Unlicensed talk
across familiar rifts recommended
but unfunded. Parks,
the banks of rivers, corners
by crowded crosswalks—these
are the sorts of prime sites we might watch for evidence of uninvited peace.
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