For Liz

Wouldn’t it be great

If we could take the colors

Of this $6.46 meal

Pale green soup

Yellow corn muffin

Cream-colored soy milk

Rich brown lemon splash tea (iced)

And make a new flag

Without those symbols of war

Reds, blues and stars

A nation that does not march

Into wasting battle

We could buy billions of pencils

For scholars around the world

Pay $6.00 fees for school uniforms

Made of cotton—not Kevlar

We would appoint you

Chef-in-Chief

Far more important than President

Or Sec Def

You would be able to feed the world

The most important thing

Teaching everyone to read and write

Poetry, stories, plays

About real things

The goodness of soup, the goodness of bread

No marching in military parades

Just parades of characters from books

Made with imagination and papier mache

Saying “Support Our Cooks”

 Instead of “Support Our Troops”

If we hung around restaurants and cafes

Eating and sipping

Instead of shooting in Afghanistan and Iraq

Or on those “War Breeders”

Deadly computer games

That kill the minds of the young

When they should be climbing ledges

Along the shore of Owls Head

Or looking for sea glass on Dick’s Beach

Killing one man or woman

Kills two souls

The victim, the shooter

It is not part of God’s plan

Metal is for jewelry 

And automobiles (bright yellow of course)

Not for bullets, planes, bombs 

Life could be so good

We have the resources

We have the talent

Why is the boat drifting so badly?

What is this desire for power?

Does it make one live longer?

I think not

It is much more pleasant

To sit in the Hardcover Café

Hear confident voices

See interesting and attractive people

Why do the Big Shots

Of Beijing, Washington, Delhi and Moscow

Think evil, harm people

You know, Liz

Jefferson would say we need

A revolution

I think you have a better idea

No one could fire a gun

While eating your delicious soup

And corn muffins, casually sipping tea

If we could get the warriors of the world

In here, relaxing for a change

Maybe we would make the world

Safe for vichyssoise 

All of us would feel better

Read books outdoors

And put away guns forever

Kendall A. Merriam, July 2007,  At the Hardcover Café, Rockland